(      NOVl 


NOV  ir,  1917 


Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day 
Aspects 


By 
James  M.  Campbell 


Prayer  in  Its  Present- Day  Aspects. 
Cloth .     net  .75 

Here  is  a  book  written  to  meet  a  situation  unpar- 
allelled  in  history,  to  restate  certain  aspects  of  an 
eternal  truth  in  the  light  of  the  conditions  and 
demands  of  these  perilous  times.  Prayer  as  re- 
lated to  the  conception  of  God,  the  conception  of 
man,  bodily  healing,  spiritual  force,  natural  phe- 
nomena and  war,  are  some  of  the  issues  dealt 
with  by  Dr.  Campbell.  A  timely  and  valuable 
treatise  on  the  highest  function  of  the  soul. 


Grozv  Old  Along  With  Me,  izmo, 
cloth,  gilt  top net  ^1.25 

"  Shows  in  most  helpful  fashion  things  a  man 
should  strive  for  and  guard  against,  things  he 
should  leave  off  doing,  as  well  as  others  he 
should  put  on." — Chicago  Daily  Tribune. 


The  Heart  of  the  Gospel.  A  Popular 
Exposition  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Atonement. 
Cloth net  $1.25 

««  Reverent,  thoughtful,  stimulating,  and  a  model 
of  clear  thinking."— C4m/w«  World. 


Prayer  in  Its  Present 

Day  Aspects       ,^ 


NOV  1  n  191 

y  By 


JAMES  M.  CAMPBELL,  D.  D. 

Author  ofGrozu  Old  Along  With  Me;'  ''The 
Heart  of  the  Gospel^*  etc,  etc. 


New    York  Chicago  Toronto 

Fleming     H.    Revell     Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,  1916,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  17  North  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:      100    Princes    Street 


Foreword 

IN  the  present  day,  as  perhaps  never  before, 
the  subject  of  prayer  is  being  pushed  into 
the  forefront.  There  are  many  things  to 
account  for  this.  Everywhere  there  is  a  spirit 
of  unrest  and  uncertainty  ;  everything  is  being 
shaken  to  its  foundations ;  the  old  order  is 
breaking  up ;  economic  problems  are  becoming 
acute ;  a  large  part  of  the  world  is  in  the  con- 
vulsions of  war ;  thrones  are  toppling  to  their 
fall;  a  materialistic  civilization  has  collapsed; 
changes  that  will  affect  the  very  structure  of 
the  social  life  of  the  world  are  coming,  not 
gently  and  gradually,  but  suddenly  and  vio- 
lently. By  the  clash  of  contending  forces  many 
are  stunned  and  bewildered.  They  know  not 
what  to  do,  they  know  not  where  to  turn. 
They  feel  deeply  the  need  of  higher  help.  Their 
spiritual  natures  are  urgently  asserting  them- 
selves, and  are  struggling  for  expression ;  but 
they  know  not  how  to  pray,  or  w^hat  to  pray 
for,  as  they  ought.  They  are  seeking  light  and 
leading.  Much  of  the  current  teaching  is  to 
them  meaningless.  Their  thoughts  do  not  run 
in  the  old  doctrinal  grooves.  They  require  to 
have  the  terms  of  the  past  retranslated  that 
6 


6  Foreword 

they  may  be  brought  into  harmony  with  the 
thought  and  life  of  the  present.  In  a  word, 
they  need  to  be  established  in  what  St.  Peter 
calls  "the  present  truth  "  (2  Pet.  i.  12) ;  that  is, 
"  the  truth  that  is  with  us  "  (R.  Y.) ;  or,  in  other 
words,  the  particular  aspects  of  the  eternal 
truth  suited  to  the  existing  conditions  and  de- 
mands. In  the  endeavour  to  do  something  to 
meet  this  situation  this  little  book  has  been 
written. 

It  may  be  added  that  the  book  itself  is  the 
aftermath  of  a  study  of  Christian  prayer  in  a 
volume  entitled  "  The  Place  of  Prayer  in  the 
Christian  Religion  "  ;  and  the  subject  of  prayer 
is  taken  up  where  it  was  there  left  off,  and  is 
considered  in  its  present-day  aspects  and  appli- 
cations. J.  M.  C. 


Contents 

I.  Prayer    as    Related   to  the  Modern 

Man's  Conception  of  God       .  .  9 

II.  Prayer    as    Related    to    the  Modern 

Man's  Conception  of  Himself  .        17 

III.  Prayer    as    Related    to   the    Modern 

Man's  Conception  of  His  Fellowmen        24 

IV.  Prayer    as    Related    to    Man's     New 

Conception  of  Life  ...        30 

V.  Prayer  as  Related  to  the  New  World 

in  Which  Man  Finds  Himself  .        36 

VI.  Growth  in  Prayer  Thought      .  .       44 

VII.  The    Development    of  Prayer  in  the 

New  Testament     .  .  .  .58 

VIII.  Gradations  in  the  Prayer  Life  .  .       63 

IX.  The  Scope  of  Prayer  ...       70 

X.  The  PiEROMAy  or  Fullness  of  Prayer       76 

XI.  Intercessory    Prayer  in    Its    Highest 

Form     ......       83 

XII.  Prayer  as  a  Spiritual  Force        .  .        90 

XIII.  Prayer    in  Relation  to  Natural  Phe- 

nomena .....        98 

XIV.  Prayer  as  Related  to  Bodily  Healing      106 

XV.  Prayer  as  Related  to  War  .  .111 
XVr.         Prayer  in  Theory  and  Practice  .      121 

XVII.  Prayer  and  Its  Formal  Expression       .      127 

XVIII.  The  Psychology  of  Prayer  .  .      132 

XIX.  Practical    Prayer — or    Prayer   as   It 

Appeals  to  the  Modern  Man  .      142 


Prayer  as  Related  to  the  Modern  Man's 
Conception  of  God 

PERHAPS  no  movement  in  religious 
thought,  within  recent  years,  has  been 
so  significant  as  the  gradual  change  of 
center  from  divine  sovereignty  to  divine  Fath- 
erhood ;  nor  has  any  similar  movement  wrought 
more  subtle  changes  in  our  views  of  prayer. 
This  movement  carries  us  back  to  Christ  in  our 
prayer-thought;  for  upon  divine  Fatherhood 
all  His  teaching  and  practice  regarding  prayer 
were  based.  Not  that  He  ignored  other  rela- 
tionships ;  for  well  He  knew  that  no  single 
term  can  include  all  that  exists  between  God 
and  man ;  but  that  of  Fatherhood  was  the 
closest,  the  deepest,  and  the  dearest.  Indeed 
it  is  the  only  one  to  which  He  directly  refers. 
Never  once  does  He  speak  of  God  as  a  king, 
but  always  as  Father.  In  the  opening  words 
of  "  the  prayer  that  teaches  us  how  to  pray," 
God's  kinghood  is  implied,  "  Our  Father "  be- 
ing represented  as  having  a  kingdom  ;  but  in 
this  double  relationship  of  Father  and  king  it 
is  the  former  in  which  prayer  has  its  vital  root. 

9 


10     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

Prayer  begins  where  religion  itself  begins,  in 
the  recognition  of  God  as  a  Father.  In  the 
Christian  religion  God  is  not  set  forth  as  a  sov- 
ereign seeking  the  submission  of  His  subjects, 
but  as  a  Father  seeking  the  love  and  obedience 
of  His  children.  He  is  not  an  offended  monarch 
whose  chief  concern  is  the  honour  of  His  violated 
law,  but  a  loving  Father  whose  chief  concern  is 
the  recovery  of  His  sinful  children.  He  is  a 
Father  first ;  and  after  that  a  king,  or  anything 
else;  and  it  is  in  the  light  of  this  relation, 
which  is  the  most  central,  that  all  His  other 
relations  are  to  be  understood ;  and  it  is  by  it 
that  the  manner  of  man's  approach  to  God  is  to 
be  determined. 

In  the  Old  Testament  we  have  divine  Father- 
hood as  2^  figure.  "  Like  as  a  father  pitieth  his 
children,  so  the  Lord  pitieth  them  that  fear 
Him."  In  the  New  Testament  we  have  divine 
fatherhood  as  a  fact.  God  is  not  merely  like 
a  Father,  He  is  a  Father.  When  we  pray 
we  are  to  say,  "Our  Father."  But  divine 
Fatherhood  is  more  than  a  fact ;  it  is  also  a 
force — a  force  active  and  operative,  moving 
upon  the  spirit  of  man  to  draw  out  his  love 
and  confidence.  The  Father  longs  for  fellow- 
ship with  all  His  children.  He  waits  for  it ; 
He  works  for  it.  He  says  to  each  one,  "  Wilt 
thou  not  from  this  time  cry  unto  Me  'My 
Father,' "  and  bends  low  His  ear  to  catch  the 


Modern  Man's  Conception  of  God     ii 

first  faint  whisperings  of  His  name.  The  out- 
going of  His  fatherly  love  is  creative  of  prayer. 
It  brings  His  wandering  child  to  His  side  that 
he  may  walk  with  Him  and  talk  with  Him ; 
and  when  that  is  accomplished  Father  and  child 
have  found  their  own. 

Almost  equal  in  importance  to  the  change  of 
center  from  divine  sovereignty  to  divine  Fath- 
erhood is  the  change  of  center  from  divine 
transcendence  to  divine  immanence.  In  their 
wondering  joy  over  the  far-reaching  effects  of 
this  change,  many  have  come  to  regard  it  more 
in  the  nature  of  a  discovery  than  of  a  recovery 
— of  a  sunrise  than  of  a  parting  of  the  clouds. 
But  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  immanence  is 
not  new.  It  has  existed  in  some  form  ever 
since  man  credited  the  universe  with  a  soul. 
It  is  one  of  the  obscured  truths  which  the  early 
Church  brought  to  light.  From  the  third  to 
the  fifth  century  it  was  regnant  in  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Greek  fathers.  Then  the  dark 
shadow  of  Augustinian  theology  fell  upon  it, 
and  for  over  a  thousand  years  it  was  well-nigh 
eclipsed.  Its  revival  in  these  modern  days  has 
brought  to  many  a  clearer  and  keener  sense  of 
the  presence  of  God.  No  longer  do  they  look 
upon  Him  as  above  the  skies,  in  some  distant 
world,  but  as  down  among  His  children,  where 
a  father  ought  to  be.  He  is  in  the  life  of  the 
world.     He  dwells  within  the  spirit  of  man. 


12     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

"  Closer  is  He  than  breathing,  nearer  than  hands 
or  feet."  He  controls  the  world  from  within 
instead  of  coming  down  upon  it  from  without. 
He  answers  prayer  not  by  interfering  with  His 
established  order  but  by  working  in  harmony 
with  it.  The  modern  man  thrusts  from  him 
the  idea  of  a  God  outside  the  universe,  saying 
with  Goethe : 

"  No,  such  a  God  my  worship  may  not  win, 
Who  lets  the  world  about  His  fingers  spin, 
A  thing  extern  :  My  God  must  rule  within  ; 
And  whom  I  own  for  Father,  God,  Creator, 
Holds  nature  in  Himself,  Himself  in  nature  ; 
And  in  His  kindly  arms  embraced,  the  whole 
Doth  live  and  move  by  His  pervading  Soul. '' 

Christian  Science,  and  kindred  cults,  have 
opened  the  door  for  many  into  this  temple  of 
truth.  They  have  brought  them  into  touch 
with  the  Infinite  and  Eternal.  God  is  made 
to  seem  near ;  but  in  a  dim,  hazy  sort  of  way. 
By  being  robbed  of  personality  He  ceases  to 
be  an  object  of  direct  communion.  For  who 
can  pray  to  a  "  principle,"  or  essence  ;  or  to  a 
nebulous  entity  called  "  The  Infinite  "  ? 

In  this  conception  of  God  there  has  been 
much  gain ;  but  taken  alone,  and  carried  to  its 
logical  conclusion,  it  runs  into  pantheism,  and 
ends  in  identifying  God  and  nature.  From  the 
premise,  *'  God  is  everything,"  it  is  only  a  short 


Modern  Man's  Conception  of  God     13 

step  to  the  conclusion,  "  Everything  is  God." 
And  if  God  is  everything,  the  idea  of  two  sep- 
arate and  self-conscious  personalities  is  ruled 
out,  and  no  place  is  left  in  life  for  prayer. 

Jesus,  knowing  the  difficulty  men  would  have 
in  retaining  the  sense  of  God's  presence  while 
holding  to  His  immanence,  combines  the  two 
conceptions  of  God,  which  taken  separately 
compose  two  hemispheres  of  truth,  and  which 
taken  together  make  up  the  full  circle.  Ke- 
ferring  to  the  dawning  of  the  new  spiritual 
era  He  says,  "  The  hour  cometh,  and  now  is, 
when  the  true  worshippers  shall  worship  the 
Father  in  spirit  and  in  truth;  for  such  doth 
the  Father  seek  to  be  His  worshippers.  God  is 
spirit,  and  they  that  worship  Him  must  worship 
in  spirit  and  in  truth  "  (John  iv.  23,  24).  It  is 
the  Universal  Father  who  is  the  Universal  Life ; 
it  is  the  Father  who  is  enthroned  in  the  highest 
heavens  whose  presence  fills  the  universe.  The 
God  who  is  "spirit "  is  not  shadowy,  intangible, 
illusive.  His  presence  is  real  and  personal.  He 
is  "  the  Father  " ;  the  Father  of  all  men.  To 
Him  we  can  pray ;  from  Him  we  can  receive 
answers  to  our  prayers ;  in  His  fatherly  bosom 
we  can  bury  our  heads  in  the  hour  of  desolar 
tion. 

Prayer  offered  to  such  a  Father-Spirit  is  not, 
as  Emerson  has  put  it,  "  a  sally  into  the  un- 
found  infinite."     It  is  the  conscious  communion 


14     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

of  spirit  with  spirit,  the  response  of  our  spirits 
to  the  call  of  the  Unseen  Father,  who  is  ever 
near,  and  who  yearns  for  our  fellowship,  and  in 
the  knowledge  of  whose  personal  interest  and 
love  our  souls  find  their  supreme  satisfaction. 

Paul  in  his  teaching  follows  Jesus  in  uniting 
these  two  aspects  of  truth.  He  speaks  of  "  One 
God  and  Father  of  all,  who  is  over  all,  and 
through  all,  and  in  all "  (Eph.  iv.  6).  He  is 
distinct  from  the  world  yet  in  it ;  over  all  as  a 
transcendent  being  standing  behind  outward 
phenomena — a  loving  Father  "  keeping  watch 
over  His  own " ;  through  all  as  an  immanent 
life  pervading  the  world ;  m  all  as  the  indwell- 
ing presence  who  is  the  ground  of  being,  and 
the  source  of  every  blessing. 

In  any  satisfactory  interpretation  of  prayer 
these  two  conceptions  of  God  must  be  taken 
into  account.  If  transcendence  be  taken  alone 
an  absentee  God  will  be  the  result ;  if  imma- 
nence be  taken  alone  an  abstract  God  will  be 
the  result.  Immanence  deifies  the  human; 
transcendence  humanizes  the  divine ;  the  one 
brings  God  down  from  above,  the  other  shows 
His  face  and  heart ;  the  one  gives  a  God  who 
is  near,  the  other  a  Father  who  is  responsive ; 
the  one  brings  us  into  the  porch  of  the  temple, 
and  leaves  us  there ;  the  other  takes  us  through 
the  open  door  into  the  temple  itself  where  we 
find  a  living,  personal  Friend,  who  listens  to 


Modern  Man's  Conception  of  God     15 

our  cry,  whose  help  we  can  evoke  and  secure, 
and  who  with  His  own  hand  ministers  to  our 
every  need. 

It  is  at  this  point  that  Eucken,  from  whom 
we  expected  so  much,  has  utterly  failed  us.  No 
one  in  these  modern  dixys  has  given  greater 
prominence  to  the  idea  of  *'a  Spiritual  Life 
working  in  and  through  man,"  but  he  has  not 
always  been  clear  as  to  the  personal  qualities 
of  the  Spiritual  Life  which  he  sees  at  work  in 
man  and  in  the  world,  much  less  has  he  come 
to  recognize  it  as  the  presence  of  the  Immanent 
Father.  Hence  he  has  virtually  nothing  to  say 
of  personal  communion  ;  nor  in  all  his  writings 
is  there  anything  like  a  call  to  prayer,  and 
hardly  a  reference  to  the  subject.  By  substi- 
tuting a  philosophy  for  a  religion  the  very  idea 
of  prayer  has  been  evaporated. 

In  order  to  the  production  of  the  prayer- 
spirit  it  is  not  enough  to  believe  in  God's  pres- 
ence, or  even  to  be  aware  of  it.  He  must  be 
known  in  personal  relations.  In  this  world  He 
has  always  dwelt  as  its  immanent  life  ;  but  men 
could  not  get  a  clear  vision  of  Him,  or  a  firm 
grip  upon  Him  until  He  objectified  Himself. 
Blind  to  His  presence,  they  have  looked  upon 
Him  as  remote,  and  have  kept  crying,  "  Oh, 
that  Thou  wouldst  rend  the  heavens  and  come 
down."  The  time  came  when  that  deep  cry  of 
the  universal  heart  was  answered.     In  Jesus  the 


l6     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

heavens  were  rent ;  the  unseen  God  was  made 
visible  ;  the  God  who  lived  in  a  distant  heaven 
came  down.  As  the  one  in  whom  the  self- 
revelation  of  God  to  man  culminated,  Jesus 
could  say,  "He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen 
the  Father."  It  is  to  the  Father  that  He  brings 
us  as  the  souPs  ultimate.  Christian  prayer  be- 
gins when  in  the  Immanent  God  the  Father  is 
found,  and  not  before. 

Happy,  thrice  happy  are  those  who  have 
learned  of  Jesus  to  look  up  to  the  All-Pervad- 
ing Life,  actively  present  in  the  world  and  in 
the  soul  of  man,  and  say : 

"  No  human  eyes  Thy  face  may  see, 
No  human  thought  Thy  form  may  know, 

But  all  creation  dwells  in  Thee, 
And  Thy  great  life  through  all  doth  flow. 

And  yet — oh,  strange  and  wondrous 
thought ; 
Thou  art  a  God  who  hearest  prayer, 

And  every  heart  with  sorrow  fraught, 
To  seek  Thy  present  aid  may  dare." 

These  beautiful  lines  need  for  their  completion 
the  added  thought  that  the  one  to  whom  we 
"  dare "  to  go  in  every  strait  is  one  who  bids 
us  come,  and  of  whose  welcome  we  are  sure  be- 
cause He  is  our  real,  and  very  own  Father. 


n 

Prayer  as  Related  to  the  Modern  Man*s 
Conception  of  Himself 

NOT  less  marked  than  man's  new  con- 
ception of  God  is  his  new  conception 
of  himself.  What  the  man  of  to-day 
thinks  of  himself  is  very  different  from  what 
the  man  of  a  past  generation  thought  of  him- 
self. Belief  in  the  doctrine  of  divine  Father- 
hood has  given  him  a  new  sense  of  dignity  and 
personal  worth.  So  long  as  the  thought  of 
sovereignty  overshadowed  that  of  Fatherhood 
manhood  was  crushed  out,  and  man  spoke  of  him- 
self as  "  a  worm  and  no  man,"  and  grovelled  in 
the  dust  of  unmanly  self-abasement.  Since  he 
has  come  to  look  upon  God  as  his  Father  all 
that  has  changed.  He  now  speaks  of  himself 
as  a  man  and  no  worm.  He  glories  in  his 
heavenly  kinship.  Accepting  his  lowly  origin, 
on  the  physical  side,  as  the  son  of  a  molecule 
he  exults  in  the  thought  that,  on  the  spiritual 
side,  he  is  a  son  of  the  living  God.  Even  if  he 
has  disavowed  his  sonship,  and  has  practically 
become  a  child  of  the  devil,  by  doing  his  works, 
17 


l8     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

he  knows  that  he  is  a  child  of  God,  made  in  His 
image,  made  for  His  friendship,  made  "  to  love 
and  be  loved  by  Him  forever,"  and  that  things 
will  never  be  right  with  him  until  he  returns  to 
his  Father.  "Within  him,  at  his  worst,  are  to 
be  found  germs  of  good,  remnants  of  his  better 
nature.  Hence  there  is  in  him  something  to 
which  religion  can  make  its  appeal.  His  better 
self  is  not  dead  but  sleepeth,  and  only  needs  to 
be  awakened.  Its  unappeasable  yearnings  be- 
speak its  parentage. 

*'  Every  inward  aspiration 
Is  God's  angel  undefiled  ; 
And  in  every  ^  O  my  Father,' 
Slumbers  deep  a  *  Here,  my  child.' " 

This  new  conception  of  man  concerning  him- 
self, and  its  consequent  new  feeling  towards 
himself  has  in  many  ways  aifected  his  prayer 
life.  It  has  given  him  a  new  spirit  of  confi- 
dence. The  modern  man  is  very  sure  of  God. 
He  may  not  always  be  living  upon  intimate 
terms  with  Him,  he  may  even  be  keeping  Him  at 
arm's  length,  but  he  believes  that  He  is  within 
call,  and  feels  certain  of  His  help,  if  he  should 
happen  to  need  it,  which  he  occasionally  does. 

But  with  this  new  sense  of  personal  worth 
there  has  unfortunately  come  to  the  modern 
man  a  sense  of  self-importance,  and  of  self- 
sufficiency.     Humility  is  not  one  of  his  dis- 


Modern  Man^s  Conception  of  Himself     19 

tinguishing  graces.  His  smug  satisfaction  with 
himself  is  equalled  only  by  his  confidence  in 
what  he  can  achieve.  So  greatly  has  his  power 
increased  in  the  realm  of  nature  that  he  has 
come  to  believe  himself  capable  of  bringing  to 
pass  any  end  he  may  desire.  He  belongs  to  a 
generation  who  proclaim : 

**  That  which  they  have  done,  but  earnests 
of  the  things  they  shall  do." 

His  general  port  and  attitude  is  that  of  one 
who  is  sufficient  unto  himself.  Limitations  of 
any  kind  he  is  slow  to  acknowledge  ;  weakness 
and  failure  he  is  loth  to  confess.  He  wants  to 
stand  upon  his  own  feet,  and  live  his  own  life, 
without  the  help  of  any  one — God  included. 
In  his  pridefulness  of  heart  he  mounts  a  pedes- 
tal, and  shouts  to  the  world  his  declaration  of 
independence. 

But  a  declaration  of  independence  comes 
with  poor  grace  from  the  lips  of  a  finite,  sinful 
mortal.  If  he  only  knew  it,  he  presents  a 
pitiable  spectacle  when  making  it.  In  his  case 
the  words  of  one  of  old,  "  My  soul  shall  make 
her  boast  in  the  Lord,  the  humble  shall  hear 
thereof  and  be  glad,"  would  have  to  be  changed 
into,  "  My  soul  shall  make  her  boast  in  myself, 
the  humble  shall  hear  thereof  and  be  sad." 

The  direful  consequences  of  this  false  attitude 
Jesus  strikingly  sets  forth  in  the  story  of  the 


20     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

Pharisee  and  the  publican,  who  stood  together 
in  the  temple  praying,  the  one  boasting  of  his 
goodness,  the  other  confessing  his  sin.  Point- 
ing to  the  latter  He  said,  "  I  tell  you,  this  man 
went  down  to  his  house  justified  rather  than 
the  other ;  for  every  one  that  exalteth  himself 
shall  be  humbled ;  but  he  that  humbleth  him- 
self shall  be  exalted  "  (Luke  xviii.  14). 

That  this  attitude  is  inimical  to  the  spirit 
and  practice  of  prayer  goes  without  the  saying ; 
for  prayer  is  rooted  in  the  sense  of  dependence 
upon  a  higher  power.  Schleiermacher  main- 
tains that  from  the  feeling  of  dependence  all 
religion  has  sprung;  and  nothing  could  be 
more  self-obvious.  Yet  many  claim  to  be 
sufficient  unto  themselves.  The  Stoics  did  so ; 
and  Emerson  building  upon  their  foundation 
developed  the  doctrine  of  self-reliance,  which 
in  its  extreme  form  rules  God  out  of  life. 

In  the  present  day  the  doctrine  of  self- 
sufficiency  is  being  widely  promulgated.  New 
Thought  and  kindred  cults  have  dressed  it  up 
in  attractive  form.  They  have  outdone  the 
Pharisees  whom  Jesus  condemned  for  their 
boastfulness.  Their  attitude  betrays  a  subtle 
kind  of  religious  self-conceit.  In  their  system 
of  thought  there  is  no  room  for  prayer,  for  the 
reason  that  there  is  no  need  of  it.  In  the 
affirmations  with  which  they  fortify  themselves 
God  is  not  mentioned.    They  assert  "I  am 


Modern  Man's  Conception  of  Himself    21 

strong,"  "  I  am  wise,"  "  I  am  good."  They 
believe  that  "  the  growing  soul  must  realize 
that  it  has  within  itself  all  that  is  required," 
and  is  therefore  under  no  necessity  to  go  out 
of  itself  for  help. 

It  is  utter  ignorance  of  himself  that  leads 
any  one  to  imagine  that  he  has  no  need  to  look 
farther  than  himself  for  supplies.  Sooner  or 
later  every  one  comes  to  an  end  of  his  own 
resources.  He  has  to  struggle  with  diflBculties 
for  which  he  has  no  adequate  wisdom,  and  to 
face  unexpected  trials  for  which  he  has  no 
adequate  strength.  Sometimes  tragedies  come 
which  make  the  very  bottom  fall  out  of  his  life. 
And  when  these  are  absent  the  daily  stress  and 
strain  of  a  dualistic  world,  which  is  not  merely 
imperfect  but  alien,  forces  himself  out  of  him- 
self and  leads  him  to  look  up  and  cry,  "  I  will 
look  to  the  mountains.  From  whence  shall  my 
help  come  ?  My  help  cometh  from  the  Ix)rd  who 
made  heaven  and  earth."  He  prays  because  he 
cannot  help  praying.  There  is  no  other  source 
of  help  open  to  him  save  that  which  prayer 
makes  available.  So  long  as  he  is  what  he  is, 
and  the  world  is  what  it  is,  the  need  of  prayer 
can  never  be  transcended  ;  for  it  belongs  to  the 
very  nature  of  things  that  the  insufficient  must 
ever  seek  the  All-Sufficient. 

Man's  dependence  upon  God  is  complete.  It 
extends  not  only  to  his  physical  life  but  also  to 


22     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

his  spiritual  life.  He  lives  in  God.  From  His 
environing  presence  be  draws  his  spiritual 
sustenance  just  as  he  draws  his  physical 
sustenance  from  the  physical  world  about  him. 
Lying  in  the  Father's  bosom  he  is  nourished  by 
the  indrawal  of  the  Father's  life.  In  spite  of 
all  the  advancement  he  has  made  his  need  of 
God  has  not  been  outgrown.  He  has  already 
come  a  long  way  in  his  ascent  out  of  the  brute 
life,  but  he  has  not  yet  arrived ;  he  is  only 
emerging,  and  is  still  far  from  the  goal.  He  is 
a  dependent  child  who  has  not  yet  reached  his 
majority.  His  need  of  God  is  as  great  as  ever 
it  was,  and  hence  his  need  for  prayer  is  as 
urgent  as  ever  it  was. 

What  is  true  of  man's  individual  dependence 
is  equally  true  of  his  collective  dependence. 
The  whole  world  hangs  upon  God's  skirts. 
There  are  times  when  nations  turn  to  Him  in 
their  helplessness  as  their  only  remaining 
source  of  help,  and  hasten  to  build  in  the  valley 
of  adversity  the  altar  which  they  neglected  to 
build  on  the  mountain  top  of  prosperity.  Such 
a  time  is  now  upon  us.  The  collapse  of  a 
civilization  built  upon  materialism  and  milita- 
rism ;  the  confessed  inadequacy  of  man  to  answer 
life's  challenge,  to  solve  life's  problems,  and 
to  meet  the  un parallelled  crisis  now  before 
him,  have  deepened  his  sense  of  creaturely 
dependence,  and  widened  the  opening  of  his 


Modern  Man's  Conception  of  Himself    23 

heart,  in  filial  trust,  to  the  Father  of  all.  He 
is  less  disposed  to  put  his  trust  in  "  reeking 
tube  and  iron  shard  "  ;  and,  with  clearer  vision, 
is  coming  to  see  that  God  is  still  to  be  taken 
into  account  in  human  affairs  ;  that  He  has  not 
vacated  the  throne  of  the  universe  ;  that  He 
has  the  last  word  to  say  in  the  settlement  of 
every  world-controversy  ;  and  that  in  the  final 
far-off  issue  of  events  His  eternal  purpose  can- 
not fail  of  accomplishment.  He  is  coming  also 
to  see  that  by  the  way  of  prayer,  and  none 
other,  can  he  come  into  adjustment  with  God's 
will,  secure  His  blessing,  and  share  in  His  ulti- 
mate triumph. 


Ill 

Prayer  as  Related  to  the  Modern  Man's 
Conception  of  His  Fellowmen 

THE  modern  man  is  coming  to  possess 
"  a  new  feeling  towards  humanity." 
Instead  of  looking  upon  his  fellowmen 
as  strangers  and  aliens  he  is  beginning  to  look 
upon  them  as  brothers ;  "  bone  of  his  bone,  and 
flesh  of  his  flesh,"  and  to  recognize  their 
brotherly  rights,  and  cherish  towards  them 
brotherly  interest  and  love.  There  has  been 
awakened  within  him  a  new  social  conscience, 
which  is  delivering  him  from  selfish  individual- 
ism, and  leading  him  to  shoulder  joyfully  the 
full  burden  of  his  social  responsibilities. 

That  this  new  sense  of  brotherhood  has  been 
born  out  of  the  revelation  of  divine  Fatherhood 
is  a  matter  of  simple  historical  fact.  When- 
ever men  have  stood  within  the  circle  of  Chris- 
tian enlightenment  and  have  come  to  know  God 
as  their  Father  and  themselves  as  His  sons, 
they  have  come  to  recognize  their  fellowmen 
as  their  brothers ;  members  with  them  of  the 
selfsame  family,  heirs  with  them  of  the  self- 
24 


Man's  Conception  of  His  Fellowmen    25 

same  heritage.  Consequent  upon  this  changed 
attitude  they  have  come  to  adopt  as  the  funda- 
mental article  of  their  creed  a  new  social 
trinity  consisting  of  Fatherhood,  sonship,  and 
brotherhood ;  and  in  filial  love  and  service 
towards  God,  and  in  fraternal  love  and  service 
towards  men,  their  religion  is  summed  up. 
Praying  as  sons  of  God  they  stand  with  one 
hand  within  that  of  their  Father,  and  the  other 
in  that  of  their  brother,  seeking  to  bring  them 
together  ;  thus  filling  up  that  which  is  lacking 
of  Christ's  mediatorial  mission. 

This  genuine  brotherhood  from  which  prayer 
naturally  springs  is  not  to  be  confounded  with 
the  artificial,  skin-deep  substitute  about  which 
shallow  mortals  prate,  and  which  too  often 
leads  its  proud  possessors  to  patronize  rather 
than  to  fraternize.  It  is  a  vital  thing,  rooted 
in  an  organic  relationship.  It  may  be  ignored, 
but  it  cannot  be  destroyed ;  the  sense  of  it  may 
be  lost,  but  the  reality  of  it  never.  Sons  of  one 
Father  are  brothers  one  of  another.  A  son  is 
a  son  forever  ;  a  brother  is  a  brother  forever. 
A  common  parentage  implies  community  of  in- 
terests and  mutuality  of  obligations.  Brothers 
are  debtors  the  one  to  the  other  ;  they  owe  one 
another  all  the  good  they  can  do  them.  So 
vast  is  this  debt  that  this  little  life-time  is  all 
too  short  in  which  to  discharge  it. 

It  has  taken  this  old  world  a  long  time  to 


26     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

gain  even  a  glimmering  of  the  truth  that  men 
are  brothers  all ;  equally  dear  to  the  All-Father, 
and  equally  bound  to  seek  each  other's  welfare. 
To  this  wide  place  the  Church  has  been  slow  in 
coming,  but  she  is  surely  getting  there.  The 
errors  by  which  her  sympathies  were  fettered 
are  passing  away,  the  scales  are  falling  from 
her  eyes,  and  she  is  acknowledging  it  to  be  her 
bounden  duty  to  labour  and  to  pray,  not  merely 
for  those  within  a  limited  circle,  but  for  all  men 
everywhere. 

It  must  have  been  from  the  beginning  the 
aim  of  Jesus  to  teach  His  disciples  that  they 
owed  to  every  man  an  interest  in  their  prayers, 
but  in  His  first  lesson  on  prayer  it  was  impos- 
sible for  Him  to  give  to  them  the  whole  of  this 
great  truth,  for  the  reason  that  they  were  not 
prepared  to  receive  it.  As  a  step  towards  it. 
He  taught  them  to  pray  for  the  whole  house- 
hold of  faith.  The  idea  of  prayer  for  the  whole 
human  family,  which  many  fondly  believe  to  be 
expressed  in  the  Lord's  Prayer,  could  not  then 
be  given.  A  truth  so  large,  and  so  startlingly 
new,  had  to  be  taught  by  degrees.  In  the  same 
gradual  way  Christ  dealt  with  slavery.  An  in- 
stitution so  deeply  rooted  in  the  social  life  could 
not  be  abolished  at  once ;  but  when  through  the 
influence  of  Christianity  the  slave  was  looked 
upon  as  a  man  and  a  brother,  slavery  was 
doomed. 


Man's  Conception  of  His  Fellowmen    27 

The  new  way  of  looking  at  man,  which  we 
have  learned  from  Christ,  carries  with  it  mo- 
mentous consequences.  It  leads  to  the  de- 
struction of  all  race  and  class  prejudices.  It 
overthrows  the  dictum  of  Roman  philosophy 
that  "  a  man  is  wolf  to  the  man  he  does  not 
know."  The  Christian  is  a  friend  to  the  man 
he  does  not  know.  In  every  stranger  he  sees  a 
brother.  He  knows  no  man  after  the  flefsh  ; 
distinctions  of  rank  and  race  vanish  from  his 
sight.  Skins  differ,  souls  are  alike.  All  men 
occupy  a  common  plane  of  relationship,  and 
have  rights  that  ought  to  be  respected. 
Towards  those  whose  need  is  sorest  the  larg- 
est stream  of  compassion  flows  out;  and  to 
e\ery  disinherited  member  of  society  is  freely 
rendered  every  form  of  helpful  service  which 
one  brother  can  minister  to  another. 

Now,  the  brotherly  responsibilities  in  these 
brotherly  relations  are  not  fulfilled  until  one 
man  prays  for  another.  A  brother  is  bound 
to  pray  for  a  brother,  for  this  is  the  highest 
service  he  can  ever  render  him  ;  and  if  it  is 
withheld  love's  greatest  debt  remains  uncan- 
celled. There  are  some  things  a  Christian  man 
can  do  by  proxy,  but  prayer  is  not  one  of  them. 
Prayer  is  something  all  can  give,  and  it  is  the 
best  thing  any  one  can  give.  When  other  forms 
of  ministry  are  denied  the  praying  soul  can  say, 
"  Silver  and  gold  have  I  none,  but  such  as  I 


28     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

have  give  I  unto  thee,"  and  the  gift  of  him- 
self which  he  gives  in  prayer  is  of  all  that 
may  be  given  the  richest  and  the  most  enrich- 
ing. 

The  calls  for  this  personal  kind  of  ministry 
are  very  urgent  and  very  varied.  Sometimes 
they  come  to  us  from  within  the  circle  of  Chris- 
tian brotherhood  in  the  form  of  direct  requests 
for  prayer  after  the  manner  of  the  apostolic  ap- 
peal, "  Brethren,  pray  for  us."  Sometimes  they 
come  from  those  without,  who  are  in  dire  dis- 
tress ;  as  in  the  case  told  by  the  poet  Whittier 
of  a  woman  closely  veiled  who  glided  ghost- 
like into  the  Quaker  Meeting  House,  and  laid 
on  the  desk  a  piece  of  paper,  upon  which  were 
written  the  words,  "  Pray  for  me, "  and  then 
passed  "  back  into  the  night  from  which  she 
came."  Sometimes  they  come  as  spirit-voices 
out  of  the  enveloping  spiritual  universe,  in 
which  the  limitations  of  the  flesh  fall  away, , 
and  spirit  touches  spirit,  and  in  some  mysterious 
way  we  are  drawn  out  in  prayer  to  those  who 
until  then  were  not  in  our  thoughts.  Concern- 
ing the  latter  experience  we  have  the  interpre- 
tative lines — 


'*  I  cannot  tell  why  there  should  come  to  me 
A  thought  of  some  one  miles  and  miles  away, 
In  swift  insistence  on  the  memory, 
Unless  there  be  a  need  that  I  should  pray. 


Man's  Conception  of  His  Fellowmen    29 

**  Perhaps  j  list  then  my  frieDd  has  fiercest  fight, 
A  more  appalliug  weakness,  a  decay 
Of  courage,  darkness,  some  lost  sense  of  sight  j 
And  so  in  case  he  needs  my  prayer,  I  pray. 

^*  Friend,  do  the  same  for  me  if  I  intrude 

Unasked  upon  you  in  some  crowded  day  ; 
Give  me  a  moment's  prayer  as  interlude  j 
Be  sure  I  need  it,  therefore,  pray." 

Can  we  imagine  anything  in  which  true  brother- 
hood is  more  fully  actualized  than  in  the  in- 
terchange of  service  involved  in  this  mutual 
ministry  of  prayer  ? 


IT 

Prayer  as  Related  to  Man's  New  Con- 
ception of  Life 

VERY  silently  has  the  old  conception  of 
life  as  a  probation  been  displaced  by 
the  new  conception  of  life  as  an  edu- 
cation. Man  is  no  longer  looked  upon  as  under 
trial,  but  as  under  training ;  he  is  no  longer 
looked  upon  as  a  candidate  for  eternity,  work- 
ing in  the  dark  until  the  outcome  of  his  career 
is  disclosed,  and  his  final  destiny  awarded  ;  but 
as  having  already  entered  upon  his  eternal 
course ;  and  as,  under  the  tutelage  of  the  heav- 
enly Father,  being  carried  through  an  educa- 
tionary  and  disciplinary  process  to  which  no 
limits  can  be  prescribed. 

According  to  this  new  educationary  view, 
life  is  not  detached  and  fragmentary,  but  is  all 
of  a  piece,  its  several  parts  being  bound  to- 
gether as  links  in  an  endless  chain.  The  past, 
the  present,  and  the  future  have  no  gaps  be- 
tween them.  As  the  past  lives  in  us,  so  does 
the  future.  Heaven  and  hell  are  not  distant 
dreams,  but  present  realities.  They  have  their 
30 


Man's  New  Conception  of  Life        31 

beginnings  in  this  life.  Both  are  already 
within  us  ;  the  one  as  the  reign  of  righteous- 
ness, the  other  as  the  reign  of  sin.  The  future 
will  be  the  continuation  and  completion  of  the 
present,  and  will  grow  out  of  it  as  harvest 
grows  out  of  spring.  Increase  is  the  law  of 
life,  and  tendencies  once  awakened  mov^e  with 
ever  accelerated  momentum.  Education  im- 
plies growth.  Each  succeeding  stage  of  de- 
velopment leads  to  still  greater  expansion. 
This  order  God  follows  in  the  production  of 
character  ;  and  this  order  those  who  would  as- 
sist Him  with  their  prayers  must  follow  also. 
They  must  enter  into  His  unresting,  unhasting, 
ever-enlarging  educationary  process,  working 
in  harmony  with  it,  creating  for  Him  a  favour- 
able atmosphere,  vitalizing  and  making  effective 
any  human  agency  which  He  may  employ,  and 
never  slacking  until  the  moral  purpose  which 
He  has  in  view  in  every  life  has  been  attained. 
The  unqualified  acceptance  of  the  education- 
ary view  of  life  has,  however,  led  to  the  put- 
ting of  such  great  stress  upon  the  law  of  moral 
increase  that  we  are  in  danger  of  overlooking 
the  possibility  of  moral  change  ;  and  by  re- 
garding habit  as  something  that  can  be  con- 
gealed into  a  fixed  and  eternal  state,  shutting 
off  from  man  all  opportunity  of  escaping  from 
his  past,  and  of  changing  his  moral  descent  into 
a  moral  ascent.     The  admission  that  the  par- 


32     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

alysis  of  the  will  may  reach  an  incurable  stage 
empties  life  of  the  last  part  and  particle  of 
moral  significance.  For  moral  character  al- 
ways implies  the  possibility  of  change.  It 
postulates  a  may^  never  a  must.  It  is  for  man 
himself  by  his  fateful  choice  to  decide  what  it 
shall  be. 

Strangely  enough,  in  the  idea  of  necessitated 
character  which  has  found  lodgment  in  the 
twin  doctrines  of  heredity  and  environment, 
the  old  Calvinism  which  had  been  thrust  out  of 
the  door  has  returned  by  the  window,  and  that 
which  has  been  discarded  as  a  theological 
dogma  has  been  accepted  as  a  doctrine  of 
science.  Its  acceptance  has  been  fraught  with 
consequences  grave  and  far  reaching,  for  if  a 
man's  character  is  made  for  him  rather  than 
by  him,  he  is  reduced  to  an  automaton,  and  is 
stripped  of  the  last  vestige  of  freedom  and  ac- 
countability. But  man  cannot  be  made  good 
or  bad.  Goodness  and  badness  must  always  be 
freely  chosen.  However  much  heredity  may 
limit  freedom,  it  cannot  altogether  take  it 
away ;  however  much  it  may  condition  char- 
acter, it  cannot  determine  it.  The  determin- 
ing power  resides  in  the  man  himself  ;  who  can 
use  or  abuse  his  heredity.  Bad  heredity  he 
can  overcome ;  good  heredity  he  can  take  ad- 
vantage of,  so  that  it  will  minister  to  his  high- 
est development.    When  his  teeth  have  been 


Man's  New  Conception  of  Life        33 

set  on  edge  by  the  sour  grapes  which  the 
fathers  have  eaten,  a  fierce  struggle  is  called 
for ;  and  when  the  tendency  to  goodness  has 
been  transmitted  the  fight  is  easier ;  but 
whether  his  heredity  be  against  him  or  for  him 
he  must  ever  remain  the  former  of  his  own 
character,  the  arbiter  of  his  own  destiny. 

So  is  it  with  the  law  of  environment,  by 
which  a  man's  life  is  so  largely  moulded ;  it 
merely  conditions  character,  but  does  not  create 
it.  Yet  strange  to  say,  in  the  present-day  hu- 
manistic schemes  of  human  redemption,  salva- 
tion is  declared  to  be  by  environment ;  and  the 
position  is  frankly  taken  that  "the  help  we 
once  expected  from  invisible,  incorporeal  agen- 
cies we  are  now  demanding  from  man.  So- 
ciety is  to  save  the  man."  Then,  Heaven  help 
us,  for  who  is  to  save  society  ?  And  how  can 
there  be  a  saved  society  unless  there  be  first  of 
all  saved  men  ?  Give  a  man  a  better  environ- 
ment and  you  will  help  him,  but  you  cannot 
essentially  change  him ;  on  the  other  hand 
make  the  man  new  and  he  will  change  his  en- 
vironment. The  worst  environment  can  be 
overcome  through  God's  grace  moving  men  to 
new  choices,  and  issues,  and  without  that  the 
most  favourable  environment  will  avail  noth- 
ing. 

Within  the  laws  of  heredity  and  environment, 
and  in  harmony  with  them,  prayer  operates. 


34     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

As  a  moral  force  it  is  the  same  in  its  nature  as 
that  by  which  God  is  moving  upon  the  hearts 
of  men  as  He  touches  the  deep  springs  of  moral 
action.     Being  moral,  its  influence  is  suasive. 
It  impels  but  does  not  compel.     It  sometimes 
brings  to  bear  upon  the  one  prayed  for  a  pres- 
sure so  great  as  almost  to  seem  irresistible,  yet 
in  the  last  analysis  it  never  overpowers  the  will. 
God  Himself  can  do  nothing  more  than  per- 
//  suade  men,  and  reason  with  them ;  He  works 
^       upon  them  in  harmony  with  the  laws  of  mind 
t^    tl  which  He  has  ordained  ;  yet  within  these  laws 
^^  *N^     there  is  nothing  which  He  cannot  do  to  meet 
the  challenge  of  faith  on  the  part  of  His  pray- 
ing children. 

Because  character  is  a  fluid,  and  not  a  solid ; 
because  man,  at  any  time  in  his  earthly  career, 
can  break  through  every  entanglement,  and  come 
out  into  the  open,  as  a  free  man  under  Christ, 
he  is  always  a  suitable  subject  for  prayer.  But 
once  admit  that  he  may  become  fixed  in  a  state 
of  invincible  incorrigibility  ;  that  he  may  sink 
so  low  that  the  divine  image  in  which  he  was 
made  may  become  totally  effaced  ;  that  he  may 
revert  to  type,  going  back  to  the  animal  plane, 
and  so  perishing  like  the  beasts,  and  he  will  be 
regarded  as  past  praying  for  ;  and  the  mission- 
ary motive  which  leads  others  to  pray  for  his 
salvation  will  be  totally  destroyed.  No  one 
will  pray  for  one  whom  he  deems  utterly  hope- 


Man's  New  Conception  of  Life        3^ 

less  any  more  than  he  will  pour  water  at  the 
root  of  a  dead  tree. 

Many  who  have  been  given  up  as  hopeless 
have  been  saved.  Mothers  have  continued  to 
pray  for  children  who  were  looked  upon  as  be- 
yond redemption,  and  whom  Christian  friends 
have  abandoned  to  their  fate,  and  their  faith 
and  hope  have  been  justified  in  seeing  the  in- 
curable cured.  From  the  rubbish  heap  modern 
science  has  rescued  many  precious  treasures ; 
and  from  the  rubbish  heap  of  human  lives 
prayer  has  rescued  many  a  precious  gem  for  the 
diadem  of  the  King.  Life  at  its  worst  has  hope 
at  the  heart  of  it ;  and  because  of  that  there 
exists  a  valid  ground  for  persevering  prayer. 
Without  hope  prayer  would  die ;  with  prayer 
to  sustain  it  it  lives  on  forever. 


Prayer  as  Related  to  the  New  World 
in  Which  Man  Finds  Himself 

THE  world  in  which  the  man  of  to-day 
finds  himself  is  in  many  respects  a 
very  different  world  from  that  of  his 
fathers.  Were  they  to  come  back  to  it  they 
would  find  themselves  strangers  in  a  strange 
place.  That  the  prayer-thought  and  life  of  the 
man  of  to-day  should  catch  a  certain  tone  and 
colour  from  his  world  is  inevitable.  In  its 
inner  essence  prayer  is  ever  the  same,  but  it 
grows  as  man  grows,  and  changes  as  his  world 
changes. 

Of  the  new  world  in  which  the  man  of  to-day 
finds  himself,  it  may  be  said  that  it  is — 

1.  A  larger  world.  By  every  new  discovery 
of  science  the  walls  of  man's  house  of  life  have 
been  expanded,  and  his  horizon  has  been 
widened.  He  has  been  brought  into  a  roomier 
place.  Instead  of  being  "  cribbed,  cabined, 
confined,"  he  has  acquired  more  room  in  which 
to  live,  to  work,  and  to  grow  ;  and  hence  more 
room  in  which  to  pray.  He  is  constantly  tap- 
ping new  sources  of  power.  The  world  is 
36 


A  New  World  37 

yielding  up  to  him  treasures  long  held  in  reserve. 
Its  resources  appear  to  him  illimitable,  its  pos- 
sibilities boundless.  The  old  words,  "  All  things 
are  yours,"  have  taken  on  a  new  meaning.  All 
things  that  belong  to  him  as  a  child  of  God, 
and  an  heir  of  the  ages,  are  his  to  use,  to  im- 
prove, and  to  enjoy.  With  so  much  already  in 
possession  he  is  prepared  for  any  wonder  that 
prayer  may  bring.  Being  accustomed  to  the 
great  things,  he  expects  greater  things. 

We  see  how  man's  world  has  enlarged  by  the 
use  of  the  telegraph  and  telephone,  which  have 
become  matters  of  daily  necessity,  and  especially 
by  the  wireless  telegraph,  and  still  later  the  wire- 
less telephone — by  which  he  can  speak  across 
continents  without  any  connecting  medium  save 
that  which  nature  supplies.  Add  to  these  the 
rapid  means  of  transportation,  and  of  the  spread 
of  news,  aerial  navigation,  stellar  photography, 
and  the  discovery  of  new  substances  such  as 
radium,  and  it  will  be  seen  how  much  wider 
man's  world  has  become.  These  discoveries 
and  inventions  have  not  only  increased  man's 
power ;  they  have  also  made  the  idea  of  his 
being  able  to  open  up  communication  with 
heaven  a  thing  no  longer  to  be  scouted  by  the 
scientific  mind.  A  concrete  example  of  this 
increase  of  power  is  furnished  by  the  incident 
of  President  Wilson  pressing  a  button  at  Wash- 
ington, and  setting  in  motion  all  the  machinery 


38     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

in  the  Panama  Exposition  at  San  Francisco, 
and  at  the  same  time  lighting  up  all  the  build- 
ings and  grounds  with  electricity.  With  such 
an  object  lesson  before  us  why  should  it  be 
thought  a  thing  incredible  that  man  by  his 
prayers  should  set  in  motion  forces  in  the  spirit 
world  which  should  bring  about  results  more 
wonderful  than  those  wrought  in  the  physical 
realm  ? 

2.  U^poTi  the  whole^  a  vastly  hetter  worlds 
The  tide  of  human  history  has  ebbed  and 
flowed  but  its  general  movement  has  been  on- 
ward. Every  change  has  not  been  a  change 
for  the  better,  and  there  is  something  in  human 
nature  that  still  makes  possible  at  any  time  a 
wild  plunge  into  the  abyss  of  darkness,  yet  tak- 
ing things  in  the  large,  the  prophecy  of  the 
Hebrew  seer  has  been  fulfilled:  "for  brass  I 
will  bring  gold,  and  for  iron  I  will  bring  silver, 
and  for  wood  brass,  and  for  stones  iron."  It  is 
a  question  whether  the  higher  altitude  attained 
by  a  few  great  personalities  in  the  past  has  ever 
been  surpassed,  but  there  is  no  question  whatever 
as  to  the  general  uplift  of  the  race,  despite  its 
occasional  fearful  back-slippings.  The  common 
type  is  higher.  Some  of  the  sturdier  virtues 
may  not  be  as  pronounced,  but  there  is  more 
love,  more  charity,  more  kindliness,  more  chiv- 
alry, more  sympathy,  more  brotherliness  in  the 
world  than  there  ever  was.    Hence  it  has  be- 


A  New  World  39 

come  a  more  comfortable  and  desirable  place 
to  live  in.  So  well  satisfied  are  people  with  it 
that  they  have  no  desire  to  leave  it.  Heaven 
is  no  longer  sought  after  as  a  compensation 
for  the  misery  of  the  present,  but  is  looked 
upon  as  an  additional  asset  which  rightly 
belongs  to  a  growing  life.  And  yet  it  is  as 
painfully  felt  as  ever  that  this  world  cannot 
meet  the  deepest  desires  of  the  soul ;  that  man 
is  too  big  to  be  satisfied  with  what  it  has  to 
offer.  Even  when  surface  indications  point  to 
satisfaction  with  material  things,  beneath  the 
surface  there  is  often  an  appreciation  of  the  su- 
premacy of  spiritual  interests,  and  a  longing  for 
the  liberation  of  the  soul  from  the  bondage  of 
sense. 

Between  these  contending  sentiments  prayer 
has  to  mediate.  While  taking  due  account  of 
the  undying  interest  of  man  in  eternal  things, 
it  has  to  make  its  appeal  in  a  world  which  has 
grown  wonderfully  interesting  and  attractive ; 
and  for  its  appeal  to  be  effective  it  must  hold 
out  the  promise  of  still  greater  satisfaction  with 
life.  The  challenge  of  its  ability  to  make  this 
promise  good  ought  gladly  to  be  accepted,  there 
being  the  utmost  ground  for  confidence  that  in 
every  case  in  which  it  has  free  course  it  can  re- 
peat the  miracle  of  changing  the  water  of  life 
into  wine. 

3.     A  world  of  mystery.     Science  has  helped 


40     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

to  clear  up  many  of  the  mysteries  by  which 
the  heart  of  man  has  been  oppressed,  but  it  has 
opened  up  other  and  greater  ones ;  and  this  old 
world  is  just  as  full  of  mystery  as  ever.  There 
are  things  which  perplex  the  man  of  to-day  as 
much  as  they  perplexed  the  first  man  that  be- 
gan to  brood  over  them.  Sin,  suffering,  and 
death  are  still  here ;  and  they  are  neither  to  be 
denied  nor  ignored. 

But  there  is  light  shining  in  the  darkness. 
Between  the  background  and  the  foreground 
of  mystery  by  which  man  is  surrounded  lies  a 
bit  of  clear  space  upon  which  light  falls  from 
the  heavens  above  him.  Here  he  kneels  in 
prayer,  finding  for  every  mystery  one  solution 
— God.  And  so  long  as  life's  mysteries  last,  to 
God  he  must  ever  repair  for  the  good  reason 
that  he  has  nowhere  else  to  go. 

4.  A  world  still  in  the  making.  Everything 
here  is  unfinished.  The  work  of  creation  is  still 
going  on.  The  creative  energy  of  God  flows 
through  the  world  in  a  constant  stream.  In 
its  operations  there  are  no  closed  circuits.  The 
whole  universe  is  open  to  God,  and  every  part 
of  it  is  plastic  to  the  touch  of  His  fashioning 
fingers.  The  world  is  not  decayed  and  dying, 
and  getting  ready  for  its  hearse ;  but  as  Tenny- 
son puts  it, 

"  This  fine  old  world  of  ours  is  but  a  child 
Still  in  its  go-cart. " 


A  New  World  41 

It  is  the  same  with  the  world  on  its  human  side. 
Souls  are  in  the  making;  society  is  in  the 
making;  the  Church  is  in  the  making;  the 
kingdom  of  God  is  in  the  making.  There  is 
a  predestined  end  to  which  all  things  move  ;  the 
eternal  purposes  of  God  are  being  carried  out 
on  time ;  the  circle  is  being  completed,  and  the 
world  is  coming  back  to  the  divine  ideal  from 
which  it  has  fallen,  and  for  which  it  was  created. 

In  a  mobile  world  prayer  iSnds  a  fitting  sphere 
of  action.  Indeed,  no  other  kind  of  a  world 
could  find  room  for  it.  From  a  solid  world — a 
world  in  which  all  things  are  fixed  by  eternal 
fate,  or  by  eternal  law,  it  would  be  forever  ex- 
cluded. A  world  in  the  making  needs  it,  and 
welcomes  it,  as  one  of  the  formative  forces  by 
which  the  good  work  begun  within  it  shall  be 
carried  to  completion. 

5.  A  world  071  its  way  to  redemption.  What 
a  difference  it  will  make  in  a  man's  praying 
whether  he  regards  the  world  as  on  its  way  to 
destruction,  or  as  on  its  way  to  redemption. 
Now,  whatever  the  future  may  bring,  evidence 
abounds  that  there  is  in  the  world  a  present 
power  working  for  repair.  Wrong  things  are 
not  allowed  to  remain  unrighted,  either  by  man 
or  God.  Eeformatory  movements  spring  up 
when  things  get  to  their  worst ;  at  its  lowest 
ebb  the  tide  turns ;  the  decayed  tree  sends  up 
new  shoots  from  the  roots.     Watching  this  life- 


42     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

giving  power  at  work  we  exclaim  with  Madame 
De  Stael, 

**  O  earth,  all  bathed  with  blood  and  tears,  yet 
never 
Hast  thou  ceased  putting  forth  thy  fruits  and 
flowers." 

This  vision  of  the  world  many  of  the  greatest 
minds  have  missed.  Matthew  Arnold  found  in 
Hebrew  history  "  a  power  not  ourselves  work- 
ing for  righteousness."  Eucken  finds  in  human 
history  a  vital  force  working  for  moral  ends. 
What  both  alike  have  failed  to  see  is  th^  pres- 
ence in  the  world  of  a  personal  Power  working 
for  redemption. 

This  is  the  Christian  conception  of  the  world, 
and  it  is  the  one  which  the  praying  man  must 
take  in  order  that  his  prayer  may  rise  to  the 
height  of  its  power.  Prayer  comes  to  have  a 
new  meaning  and  a  new  value  when  it  is  seen 
to  be  a  cooperative  force  by  which  God  is 
helped  in  the  work  of  the  world's  redemption. 
The  world  needs  saving.  It  has  gone  wrong 
and  has  to  be  put  right ;  it  has  fallen  from  the 
divine  ideal  and  needs  to  be  brought  back  to  it. 
Take,  for  example,  the  present  economic  system. 
It  is  not  Christian.  It  is  monopolistic,  parasitic, 
selfish  to  the  core.  We  can  no  more  pray  for 
it  than  we  can  pray  for  the  liquor  traffic.  We 
must  pray  against  it ;  we  must  pray  it  away. 


A  New  World  43 

We  must  pray  for  the  coming  of  the  day  when 
in  its  place  there  will  be  some  form  of  a 
cooperative  commonwealth  in  which  the  toiler 
will  receive  a  fair  share  of  the  products  of  his 
toil,  and  in  which  the  larger  life  to  which  he 
aspires  will  be  made  possible.  In  a  spirit  of 
true  substitution  we  must  put  ourselves  in  the 
place  of  the  disinherited  ;  identifying  ourselves 
with  their  interests ;  feeling  the  pressure  of  their 
wrongs ;  echoing  their  bitter  cry  ;  sympathizing 
with  them  in  the  blighting  of  their  hopes ;  and 
becoming  their  representatives  before  God,  so 
that  through  our  prayers  the  deep,  unspoken 
desires  of  their  hearts  will  find  expression. 

This  brotherly  ministry  of  prayer  will  help, 
as  nothing  else  can,  to  deepen  and  strengthen 
the  growing  sense  of  social  solidarity.  It  will 
bind  men  together  in  unbreakable  bonds. 
Those  who  pray,  and  those  who  are  prayed 
for,  will  be  brought  into  oneness;  they  will 
rise  and  fall  together;  they  will  travel  together 
into  the  land  of  promise ;  and  perchance  they 
will  come  to  look  together  through  the  mists 
and  vapours  of  this  troubled  social  atmosphere, 
and  catch  a  vision  of  the  place  of  prayer  in  the 
social  order,  as  that  mighty  force,  by  which, 
even  now, 

*'  The  whole  round  world  is  every  way 
Bound  by  gold  chains  about  the  feet  of  God.'' 


VI 

Growth  in  Prayer  Thought 

THE  religions  of  the  East  are  stagnant 
and  stationary.  They  suffer  from 
arrested  development,  and  are  either 
dead  or  dying.  Among  the  religions  of  the 
world  Christianity  alone  continues  to  make 
progress.  It  has  in  it  something  of  the  fire  of 
eternal  youth.  It  is  a  sunrise  not  a  sunset.  It 
holds  the  future  in  its  hands.  It  claims  for  its 
own  not  only  things  present,  but  things  to 
come. 

The  reason  why  it  is  sure  of  the  future  is 
because  it  has  power  to  adapt  its  inherent 
growing  life  to  changing  conditions.  In  this 
it  resembles  the  Bible,  which  is  structured  from 
beginning  to  end  upon  the  principle  of  adapta- 
tion. It  is  the  record  of  the  development  of 
truth  from  its  crudest  to  its  highest  forms.  It 
reveals  a  process  of  moral  education  in  which 
every  successive  lesson  was  wonderfully  adapted 
to  the  growing  intelligence  and  quickened 
moral  sense  of  those  to  whom  it  was  given. 
Truth  never  changes,  but  our  conceptions  of  it 
44 


Growth  in  Prayer  Thought  45 

do.  Truth  is  eternal,  but  the  terms  in  which 
it  is  expressed  require  to  be  frequently  reminted. 
Ko  definition  of  truth  is  final.  Finality  be- 
longs to  the  divine,  progress  to  the  human. 
Browning  is  right  when  he 

^*  Finds  progress,  man's  distinctive  mark  alone, 
Not  God's,  and  not  the  beast's." 

Now,  it  is  simply  inconceivable  that  there 
should  be  progress  in  every  sphere  of  religious 
thought  save  that  of  prayer.  If  it  be  a  living 
thing  prayer  will  grow.  Its  development  will 
correspond  with  the  spiritual  development  of 
man,  and  with  his  increase  in  the  knowledge  of 
God.  As  a  man  rises  in  the  scale  of  being,  and 
towards  God,  so  will  he  rise  to  higher  heights 
in  his  prayer  life. 

The  growth  in  prayer  is  strikingly  illustrated 
in  the  difference  between  prayer  in  the  Old 
Testament,  and  prayer  in  the  New  Testament. 
When  we  pass  over  from  the  Old  Testament 
into  the  New  we  come  into  a  totally  different 
atmosphere.  Not  that  a  higher  devotional  note 
is  struck ;  for  the  prayers  of  the  Old  Testament 
are  unsurpassed  as  expressions  of  confession, 
adoration,  and  praise.  The  Hebrew  Psalter  in 
particular  is  the  very  efflorescence  of  the  de- 
votional spirit,  and  constitutes  the  high  water 
mark  of  devotional  literature.  And  yet  in  its 
essential  spirit  prayer  at  its  best  in  the  Old 


46     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

Testament  falls  far  below  that  of  the  New. 
The  one  who  is  least  in  the  new  dispensation  is 
greater  than  he  who  is  first  in  the  old.  Among 
points  of  difference  between  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ment prayer  to  be  noted  are : 

1.  The  change  from  prayer  to  a  localized 
God  to  prayer  to  an  omnipresent  Ood.  The 
Jehovah  of  the  Jews  dwelt  among  His  chosen 
people ;  the  house  of  His  abode  was  in  Jerusa- 
lem ;  there  He  was  to  be  found,  and  thither  the 
tribes  of  Israel  went  up  to  worship  Him.  The 
idea  of  a  God  who  was  everywhere  present,  as 
much  in  one  place  as  another,  came  late,  and 
was  attained  by  only  a  few  illuminated  souls. 
The  people  in  general,  while  believing  that  in 
the  realm  of  nature  God  was  universally  pres- 
ent, were  not  quite  so  certain  of  His  presence 
in  the  realm  of  human  life.  There  were  wide 
areas  in  their  little  world  from  which  He  was 
practically  shut  out.  He  was  in  some  places, 
and  absent  from  others;  here  and  not  there; 
there  and  not  here. 

The  Christian  God  on  the  other  hand  is  both 
here  and  there.  There  is  no  spot  in  all  the 
universe  from  which  He  is  absent.  Wherever 
men  seek  Him  they  may  find  Him. 

2.  The  change  from  prayer  to  a  national 
God  to  prayer  to  one  who  is  everybody"^ s  God, 
and  everyhody^s  Friend.  The  idea  of  a  world- 
God,  in  friendly  relations  with  suffering,  strug- 


Growth  in  Prayer  Thought  47 

? 

gling  men  everywhere,  was  utterly  foreign  to  • 

Jewish  thouglit.  In  the  Old  Testament  Je- 
hovah is  the  God  of  Israel,  as  against  all  other 
nations.  He  is  a  partisan  deity,  whose  inter- 
ests are  limited  to  His  own  people ;  whose 
covenant  is  with  His  own  people ;  and  who  in 
the  day  of  battle  tights  on  the  side  of  His  own 
people. 

In  striking  contrast  with  this  view  of  God  is 
that  given  by  Jesus,  who  represents  Him  as 
the  Universal  Father,  to  whom  every  one  of 
His  children  is  equally  dear,  and  whose  happi- 
ness is  bound  up  in  their  individual  welfare. 
The  name  of  Father  which  Jesus  applied  to 
God  was  not,  however,  entirely  new.  The 
Jews  used  it  in  a  national,  but  never  in  a  per- 
sonal sense.  Heathen  writers  used  it  in  a 
poetical,  but  never  in  a  real  sense.  Jesus  filled 
the  name  with  a  new  content  of  meaning, 
making  it  a  living  term,  expressive  of  a  real 
and  affectional  relation  between  God  and  man. 

The  historical  revelation  which  culminated 
in  Him  came  to  full  fruition  in  the  disclosure 
of  God  as  a  Father.  To  the  heart-aching  cry, 
"  Show  us  the  Father  and  it  will  satisfy  us," 
He  made  answer,  "  He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath 
seen  the  Father."  In  His  human  life  all  the 
essential  qualities  of  divine  Fatherhood  were 
expressed.  To  lead  men  to  know  as  their 
Father  the  God  to  whom  they  had  been  pray- 


48     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

ing  was  the  supreme  object  of  His  earthly 
mission. 

By  revealing  God  as  a  Father,  Jesus  revealed 
to  man  His  true  and  original  sonship,  in  which 
is  founded  the  basis  of  every  claim  He  has 
upon  God.  If  a  son,  then  an  heir ;  if  a  son, 
then  liberty  of  access  and  the  right  of  petition ; 
if  a  son,  then  a  sharer  in  that  paternal  love 
which  holds  within  itself  the  pledge  of  every 
needed  good. 

3.  The  change  of  the  approach  to  God  ly 
priestly  mediation  to  that  of  direct  access  into 
His  presence.  The  Jewish  system  of  priestly 
mediation  arose  very  naturally  out  of  the 
sense  of  unworthiness  to  appear  before  God 
inherent  in  man's  sinful  nature.  At  first  the 
aid  of  some  one  more  worthy,  more  holy,  was 
sought.  Then  a  certain  class  were  set  apart  to 
the  mediatorial  office.  But  as  the  sense  of 
the  relation  of  the  individual  soul  to  God  grew 
in  the  Jewish  mind  the  service  of  the  priest 
was  more  and  more  dispensed  with,  and  per- 
sonal fellowship  with  Jehovah  came  to  be 
sought  after.  Once  experienced  it  came  to  be 
looked  upon  as  the  highest  boon  to  mortals 
given.  The  possibility  of  being  shut  off  from 
this  fellowship  made  the  devout  Jew  shrink 
from  Sheol.  Because  of  his  desire  for  un- 
broken communion  with  his  God  he  began  to 
cherish  the  hope  of  personal  immortality.     To 


Growth  in  Prayer  Thought  49 

dwell  in  the  house  of  Jehovah  forever  was  his 
religious  goal. 

It  was  at  this  point  of  preparedness,  when 
the  Jewish  system  of  priesthood,  having  served 
its  purpose  was  breaking  down,  that  Jesus 
came  proclaiming  the  right  of  every  man  to 
freedom  of  access  into  the  divine  presence. 
When  He  taught  the  equality  of  men,  as  chil- 
dren of  a  common  Father,  the  need  of  priestly 
mediation  was  done  away  with  forever.  One 
man  was  seen  to  be  as  good  as  another ;  as 
^vorthy  of  divine  recognition  as  another ;  as 
much  entitled  to  all  the  rights  and  privileges 
of  divine  sonship  as  another.  Henceforih  the 
whole  race  of  men  were  to  pray  to  the  one  God 
and  Father  of  all,  before  whom  every  man  has 
equality  of  footing ;  to  whom  every  man  can 
go  for  himself ;  and  with  whom  every  man 
may  hold  the  close  and  intimate  communion  of 
a  child  with  a  father. 

Christianity  is  the  religion  of  the  riven  veil, 
and  of  the  open  door.  The  Christian  needs  no 
priest.  The  way  for  him  to  the  throne-room  is 
ever  open,  and  when  he  enters  it,  unspeakable 
is  his  joy  to  find  his  Father  upon  the  throne. 

4.  The  change  from  jprayer  to  a  God  who 
has  had  to  he  propitiated  to  a  God  who  is  pro- 
pitious. The  Old  Testament  saint  prayed  to 
God,  entreating  Him  to  be  merciful ;  the  New 
Testament  saint  prays  to  Him  believing  that 


50     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

He  is  merciful.  He  has  come  to  see  that  if 
any  alienation  exists  between  him  and  God,  ib 
is  altogether  on  his  own  side. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  prayer  of  the 
Jews  should  sometimes  have  sunk  to  the  level 
of  their  heathen  neighbours,  to  whom  prayer 
was  a  matter  of  divine  appeasement ;  a  device 
to  ward  off  the  blows  of  a  hostile  power ;  an  ef- 
fort to  secure  divine  intervention,  or  to  extract 
from  their  god  some  special  favour,  especially 
to  obtain  from  him  victory  over  their  foes  in 
battle.  But  oftentimes  it  rose  to  a  higher 
level,  and  became  the  confident  appeal  to  one 
with  whom  they  were  on  friendly  terms. 

In  the  parable  of  the  prodigal  son  we  have 
the  New  Testament  representation  of  the  true 
manner  of  man's  approach  to  God.  The  re- 
turning wanderer  receives  a  warm  welcome. 
The  Father  sees  him  afar  off,  runs  to  meet  him, 
presses  him  to  his  breast,  and  outpours  upon  his 
penitent  soul  all  the  wealth  of  his  forgiving 
and  restoring  love.  Koom  for  doubt  there  is 
none  ;  room  for  hesitancy  there  is  none.  The 
way  to  God  is  open  all  the  way  up  from  the 
lowest  depths  of  degradation  to  a  place  in  the 
Father's  house,  and  to  the  fellowship  of  His  un- 
dying, unchanging  love. 

5.  The  change  from  prayer  restricted  and 
partial  in  its  sympathies  to  prayer  whose  aims 
embrace  the  whole  of  human  hind,     No  pious 


Growth  in  Prayer  Thought  51 

Jew  ever  thought  of  praying  for  his  heathen 
neighbours.  Of  human  brotherhood,  and  human 
solidarity,  he  had  not  the  first  glimpse.  The 
truth  that  God  has  "  made  of  one  blood  all 
nations  of  men  to  dwell  upon  the  face  of  the 
earth  "  (Acts  xvii.  26)  had  never  dawned  upon 
him.  His  praying  was  as  provincial  and  as 
circumscribed  as  his  life.  It  never  got  beyond 
"  Let  Israel  flourish  "  to  "  Thy  kingdom  come." 

Christian  prayer,  on  the  other  hand,  is 
cosmopolitan.  A  Christian  is  a  citizen  of  the 
world.  He  prays  for  his  own  nation — for 
patriotism  is  part  of  his  religion  ;  but  he  does 
not  pray  for  his  own  nation  alone,  much  less 
does  he  pray  for  it  as  against  any  other  nation. 
He  prays  for  men  of  every  race  and  tongue ; 
and  his  supreme  desire  is  that,  whatever  nation 
may  rise  or  fall,  the  kingly  rule  of  the  Father 
among  men  may  be  everywhere  advanced.  In 
the  interests  of  the  Father's  kingdom  all  his 
praying  centers.  To  him  nations  are  but  human 
aggregates  that  grow  and  decay  ;  that  fulfill 
their  purpose  and  pass  away  ;  but  the  kingdom 
of  the  Father  for  which  he  prays — which  on 
the  human  side  is  the  brotherhood  of  the  lov- 
ing and  the  true,  is  destined  to  hold  on  its  con- 
quering way,  amid  political  and  social  up- 
heavals, until  at  length  it  becomes  part  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven. 

In  the  prayer  which  Jesus  furnishes  as  a 


52     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

model  He  gives  to  prayer  a  social  quality.  It 
is  a  brotherly  act.  The  pronouns  which  it 
employs  are  not  "  my  "  and  "  mine  "  but  "ours  " 
and  "  thine."  No  monopoly  upon  God,  or 
upon  His  favours,  is  thought  of.  Nothing  is 
asked  in  which  the  one  who  prays  is  not  willing 
that  others  should  have  a  share.  Blessing  is 
sought  for  those  who  are  in  need  with  the  same 
disregard  of  worthiness  that  God  shows  in  His 
dealings  with  us. 

As  water  cannot  rise  above  its  source.  Chris- 
tian prayer  cannot  come  from  an  unchristian 
heart ;  but  only  from 

"  A  heart  in  every  thought  renewed, 
And  full  of  love  divine.'* 

But  alas !  much  of  the  prayer  offered  up  by 
professing  Christians  comes  short  of  the  Chris- 
tian ideal.  In  vain  do  you  search  in  it  for  a 
single  spark  of  altruistic  fire.  It  needs  to  be 
born  again.  The  tree  has  to  be  made  good  that 
the  fruit  may  be  good.  For  what  a  man  really 
is  determines  the  manner  of  his  praying.  If 
he  is  selfish  he  will  pray  selfishly ;  if  he  is  a 
Christian  he  will  pray  Christianly;  and  if  he 
prays  Christianly  he  will  pray  with  a  world- 
wide sympathy  and  love. 

6.  The  change  from  prayer  for  vengeance 
upon  enemies  to  prayer  for  forgiveness  of 
enemies.     This  is  perhaps  the  most  marked  dif- 


Growth  in  Prayer  Thought  53 

ference  of  all.  Jesus  Himself  draws  a  contrast 
between  the  pre-Christian  and  the  Christian 
attitude  with  respect  to  prayer  for  enemies.  He 
says,  "  Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said, 
Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  and  hate  thine 
enemy  ;  but  I  say  unto  you,  Love  your  enemies, 
and  pray  for  those  that  persecute  you  "  (Matt. 
v.  43-45).  This  was  a  new  rule  of  action,  a 
new  kind  of  prayer.  Until  Jesus  exalted  it 
into  a  virtue,  forgiveness  of  injuries  had  been 
looked  upon  as  a  weakness.  In  His  teaching  it 
was  set  forth  as  the  divinest  thing  in  human 
character,  "  the  thing  the  likest  God  within 
the  soul,"  the  thing  which  affords  conclusive 
evidence  that  its  possessors  are  the  true  sons  of 
the  heavenly  Father.  In  vain  we  search  the 
pages  of  the  Old  Testament  for  the  slightest 
touch  of  this  new  spirit.  The  prayer  for  the 
forgiveness  of  enemies  is  there  unknown. 

The  hardest  lesson  in  all  His  teachings  Jesus 
exemplified  as  He  hung  upon  the  cross.  Instead 
of  invoking  Heaven's  malediction  upon  those 
who  were  doing  their  worst  to  Him,  praying  for 
their  destruction,  He  prayed,  "  Father  forgive 
them."  This  spirit  of  forgiveness  which  He 
manifested  was  a  new  thing  in  the  world.  It 
filled  the  beholders  with  astonishment,  and  led 
them  to  exclaim,  '^  We  never  saw  it  before  on 
this  fashion." 

The  spirit  of  revenge  has  no  place  in  a  Chris- 


54     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

tian  heart;  nor  have  prayers  of  imprecation 
any  place  in  a  Christian  litany.  "  Chants  of 
hate  "  and  prayers  of  hate,  which  the  war  spirit 
calls  forth,  are  utterly  unchristian.  Prayer  for 
power  to  wreak  vengeance  upon  an  enemy  is 
essentially  wicked,  and  is  an  insult  to  High 
Heaven.    A  heathen  may  cry, 

**  Be  ready,  gods  ;  with  your  thunderbolts 
Dash  him  to  pieces," 

but  that  such  a  prayer  should  come  from  Chris- 
tian lips  is  utterly  inconceivable.  Christian 
prayer  will  allow  the  sword  to  be  drawn  in  the 
defence  of  hearth  and  home;  or  for  the  de- 
liverance of  the  oppressed ;  but  it  will  stay  the 
hand  that  is  uplifted  in  unrighteous  war.  It 
will  lead  those  who  are  about  to  be  hurried  by 
unholy  passion  into  the  slaughter  of  their  un- 
offending fellowmen  to  pause  and  say  : 

"  Some  unknown  widow  sits  upon  mine  arm, 
And  takes  away  the  use  of  it,  and  my  sword 
Glued  to  my  scabbard  with  wronged  orphan^s 

tears 
Will  not  be  drawn.'' 

Those  who  pray  in  Christ's  name  will  pray 
in  His  spirit ;  those  who  pray  in  the  Holy  Spirit 
will  pray  in  a  holy  spirit.  Those  who  refuse  to 
pray  for  those  who  do  them  wrong  are  none  of 
Christ's.    They  may  call  themselves  Christians, 


Growth  in  Prayer  Thought  55 

but  they  are  bhnded,  not  knowing  what  manner 
of  spirit  they  are  of.  They  virtually  disclaim 
their  divine  sonship,  and  take  their  stand  out- 
side the  circle  of  God's  covenanted  mercies. 

7.  A  change  in  the  very  spirit  of  prayer 
from  the  struggle  and  anguish  of  heart  to  con- 
fidence and  joy.  The  Old  Testament  saint  was 
not  always  sure  of  God.  He  waited  patiently 
for  Him,  whereas  the  New  Testament  saint 
when  he  rises  to  his  privilege  waits  patiently 
on  Him.  He  gives  God  time  for  the  working 
out  of  His  plans ;  and  although  the  process 
may  be  long  and  trying  he  never  doubts  what 
the  final  result  will  be. 

The  idea  that  God  is  hard  to  find  and  diffi- 
cult to  persuade  was  at  one  time  well-nigh  uni- 
versal. Dr.  Alexander  Whyte  tells  how  James 
Fraser  of  Brea,  one  of  the  saintliest  of  the  old- 
time  Scotch  ministers,  "  attained  to  a  true  and 
sure  audience  of  Almighty  God,"  as  if  this 
were  something  unwonted  in  Christian  expe- 
rience. "  He  never  left  the  place  of  prayer  till 
he  felt  sure  that  he  had  been  in  the  king's  pres- 
ence, and  had  gained  the  ear  of  his  sovereign, 
and  had  a  gracious  assurance  of  His  favour." 
It  was  a  long  journey  to  the  King's  palace, 
something  like  that  of  Jeanie  Deans  in  going 
to  London  to  see  the  king  that  she  might 
intercede  in  behalf  of  her  unfortunate  sister. 
But  is  such  a  journey  really  needed  ?    Perhaps 


5*6     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

to  find  the  king;  not  to  find  the  i^a^A^n  The 
Father  can  be  found  at  home,  among  His  chil- 
dren ;  yea,  He  can  be  found  in  our  very  hearts. 
In  the  acknowledgment  of  His  presence  all 
true  prayer  begins. 

The  long-drawn-out  prayer  of  uncertainty 
and  agony  which  characterized  most  of  the 
praying  of  the  past  was  utterly  unchristian  in 
its  attitude  towards  God.  It  belonged  to  an 
age  unduly  influenced  by  Jewish  ideals,  and 
did  not  occupy  the  high  place  of  freedom  and 
assurance  which  belong  to  Christian  prayer. 

The  Father  whom  Jesus  reveals  as  the  object 
of  prayer  does  not  stand  upon  ceremony.  He 
is  ever  accessible,  ever  responsive.  He  does  not 
spurn  the  poor  petition  of  any  child  who  in 
dire  distress  calls  upon  Him  for  help,  even  if  he 
does  not  know  His  name,  or  address  Him  in  a 
becoming  manner.  He  answers  him  at  once, 
pouring  into  his  open  heart  the  fullness  of  His 
saving  grace,  giving  for  love's  sake,  not  on 
the  ground  of  the  petitioner's  merit,  but  be- 
cause of  his  great  need. 

The  praying  soul  is  entirely  misguided  v^hen 
told  to  struggle  with  God,  giving  Him  no  rest 
until  He  yields.  What  a  travesty  upon  the  re- 
lation of  God  to  man  is  implied  in  the  encomium 
passed  upon  a  certain  saint,  namely,  that  he 
was  "  a  laborious  and  successful  wrestler  at  the 
throne  of  grace."    Never  was  there  a  sadder 


Growth  in  Prayer  Thought  57 

form  of  misdirected  effort  than  that  of  wres- 
tling with  God.  All  of  a  man's  wrestling  ought 
to  be  with  himself  for  the  purpose  of  overcom- 
ing his  deadness  and  obstinacy  of  heart,  and 
never  with  God  for  the  purpose  of  overcoming 
His  reluctance.  Bengel  says,  "A  Christian 
should  not  leave  off  praying  until  his  heavenly 
Father  gives  him  leave  by  permitting  him  to 
obtain  something."  Eather  ought  it  to  be  said 
that  a  Christian  should  not  leave  off  praying 
because  he  is  sure  that  his  heavenly  Father  will 
give  him  what  he  asks,  provided  it  is  best  that 
he  should  have  it. 

Shortly  before  his  death,  when  Europe  was 
plunging  into  war,  Pope  Pius  X  made  a  tender 
appeal  to  the  whole  Eoman  Catholic  world  to 
pray  for  peace,  urging  them  to  pray  with  in- 
sistence "  so  that  the  merciful  God  may,  as  it 
were,  be  wearied  with  the  prayers  of  His  chil- 
dren, and  speedily  remove  the  evil  causes  of 
war."  Not  thus  surely  are  we  to  pray,  "  weary- 
ing God  with  our  assiduous  cries."  He  is  not 
like  the  unjust  judge  whom  the  importunate 
widow  worried  into  compliance,  but  is  ever 
responsive  to  the  prayer  of  His  children,  and 
will  give  us  the  thing  we  need  just  as  soon  as 
we  are  ready  to  receive  it. 


YII 

The  Development  of  Prayer  in  the 
New  Testament 

A  COMPREHENSIVE  study  of  the 
growth  of  prayer-thought  will  include 
not  only  the  contrast  between  prayer 
in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  but  will  con- 
cern itself  with  tracing  the  same  law  of  de- 
velopment in  the  New  Testament  itself.  At 
the  beginning  of  His  career  as  a  teacher  Jesus 
declared  that  He  had  many  things  to  say  to 
His  disciples  which  they  were  not  then  able  to 
bear.  The  truth  which  He  taught  was  final, 
but  never  did  He  attempt  to  put  it  into  final 
form.  He  taught  by  a  system  of  progressive 
lessons.  He  provided  no  stereotyped  forms. 
The  prayer  which  we  designate  "  The  Lord's 
Prayer  "  is  not  a  fixed  form  to  be  slavishly  re- 
peated, but  a  model  to  be  freely  imitated. 
When  He  said,  '*  After  this  manner  pray  ye," 
He  never  meant  His  words  to  be  taken  as 
putting  a  foreclosure  upon  individual  initiative 
in  prayer,  but  merely  as  indicating  the  general 
lines  upon  which  their  prayers  were  to  run. 
His  closing  prayer  recorded  in  the  seventeenth 
68 


Prayer  in  the  New  Testament         59 

chapter  of  John's  Gospel  has  in  it  new  elements 
which  could  not  have  been  given  at  the  be- 
ginning. It  is  a  prayer  to  be  imitated  in  spirit, 
and  the  praying  soul  that  becomes  steeped  in  it 
will  occupy  the  holy  of  holies. 

Certain  elements  entered  into  prayer  after 
the  completion  of  the  sacrificial  work  of  Christ, 
and  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  could 
not  possibly  have  entered  into  it  before.  When 
Christians  could  pray  "  in  His  name,"  and  in 
the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  they  had  reached 
a  more  advanced  place  in  the  prayer  life. 

The  growth  in  prayer  was  part  of  the  mighty 
movement  set  forth  in  the  first  Christian  apolo- 
getic— the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  The  two 
main  lines  which  the  thought  of  that  remark- 
able book  follows  are  the  change  from  the  out- 
ward to  the  spiritual,  and  from  the  limited  to 
the  universal.  The  sacrifices  which  it  demands 
are  "  spiritual  sacrifices  " ;  the  praying  which 
it  demands  is  spiritual  praying.  On  the  ground 
of  the  offering  for  sin,  made  "  once  for  all  "  by 
the  High  Priest  of  humanity,  it  lays  the  basis 
of  prayer  for  all  men ;  and  sees  in  the  ever- 
expanding  Christian  spirit  a  power  that  is  to 
conquer  all  racial  prejudice,  class  exclusive- 
ness,  and  religious  bigotry  ;  and  make  every 
forth-putting  of  effort  on  behalf  of  others  blend 
with  the  world-embracing  purpose  of  divine 
redeeming  grace. 


6o     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

A  concrete  illustration  of  this  onward  move- 
ment is  seen  in  the  liberation  of  Peter  from  his 
Judaistic  narrowness,  and  his  change  from  a 
Jewish  Christian  into  a  Christian  Jew.  When 
he  was  praying  on  the  housetop  of  Simon  the 
tanner  at  Joppa  he  beheld  a  vision  of  a  sheet 
knit  by  the  four  corners,  containing  all  manner 
of  living  creatures,  and  was  commanded  to  "  kill 
and  eat."  This  he  refused  to  do,  on  the  ground 
that  the  animals  were  common  and  unclean. 
Then  the  voice  that  spake  to  him  answered, 
"  What  God  hath  cleansed,  that  call  thou  not 
common  "  ;  and  at  once  it  began  to  dawn  upon 
him  that  God's  creatures  are  all  good ;  that 
ceremonial  distinctions  whether  applied  to  ani- 
mals or  to  men  are  artificial ;  that  true  religion 
is  a  thing  of  the  heart ;  that  "  God  is  no  respecter 
of  persons,  but  in  every  nation  he  that  feareth 
Him  and  worketh  righteousness  is  acceptable  to 
Him."  When  these  deeper  truths  came  to  him 
he  was  brought  to  include  the  Gentiles  in  God's 
covenanted  mercies,  and  to  make  them  the  sub- 
jects of  his  prayers,  and  the  objects  of  his  evan- 
gelistic efforts. 

Progress  is  seen  in  other  directions,  as  for 
example  in  the  change  from  the  conception  of 
prayer  as  simple  petition  to  the  conception  of 
it  as  a  working  force ;  from  its  occasional  exer- 
cise to  its  habitual  practice;  from  protracted 
seasons  of  prayer  to  prayer  "  without  ceasing  " 


Prayer  in  the  New  Testament         6l 

— that  is,  prayer  in  which  the  whole  man  and 
the  whole  life  pray. 

A  similar  movement  to  that  described  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  in  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  and  in  the  Pauline  Epistles,  is  going 
on  to-day.  Changes  as  great  and  as  significant 
are  taking  place  before  our  eyes.  There  is  a 
breaking  up  of  the  old  order  of  things  resem- 
bling the  breaking  up  of  ice-bound  lakes  and 
rivers  in  spring.  Truth  being  vital  and  grow- 
ing, rather  than  mechanical  and  static,  refuses 
to  be  imprisoned  in  our  formulas.  Old  truths 
are  being  restated  in  forms  of  life,  so  as  to  fit 
the  thought  of  the  present  day.  The  old  is  giv- 
ing place  to  the  new,  as  it  alwa3''s  has  done,  and 
always  will  do.  In  all  this  change  it  is  evi- 
dently God's  design  that  there  should  be  prog- 
ress, and  that  the  enlargement  and  enrichment 
of  the  religious  life  should  go  forever  on. 

As  an  offset  to  this  we  find  in  some  quarters 
a  tendency  to  hark  back  to  the  past,  and  to  seek 
the  restoration  of  apostolic  Christianity.  But 
the  only  thing  we  should  attempt  to  recapture 
and  carry  forward  is  the  apostolic  spirit.  We 
are  to  shape  our  own  religious  habitation, 
"  building  upon  the  foundation  of  the  apostles," 
and  using  what  they  have  bequeathed  to  us 
just  as  we  use  the  general  knowledge  and  ex- 
perience of  the  past  in  any  other  department 
of  life.     The  edifice  upon  which  we,  and  every 


62     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

successive  generation  of  Christians  work,  is  "  a 
growing  temple" — a  temple  which  is  never 
completed  here. 

In  the  very  nature  of  things  it  is  reasonable 
to  expect  that  this  onward  movement  should 
be  nowhere  more  in  evidence  than  in  the 
growing  fullness  of  the  prayer  life  ;  for  is  not 
the  prayer  life  the  supreme  test  of  the  soul's 
growth?  Present-day  prayer  should  be  the 
best  the  world  has  ever  known.  And  it  will 
be  so  if  the  Christians  of  to-day  as  "heirs  of 
God,  and  joint-heirs  with  Jesus  Christ,"  enter 
into  their  inheritance.  Just  as  the  praying 
Christian  ought  to  stand  on  higher  ground  than 
any  worshipper  who  went  before  him,  being,  as 
the  Scotch  would  say,  "  farther  ben  " ;  so  the 
modern  Christian  should  stand  on  still  higher 
ground  than  the  Christian  of  an  earlier  day, 
occupying  a  place  of  wider  vision,  and  of  larger 
liberty,  and  of  greater  power.  If  he  does  not 
occupy  that  place  he  is  certainly  living  below 
his  privileges. 


YIII 

Gradations  in  the  Prayer  Life 

t  J~^HERE  are  gradations  in  prayer  an- 
I         swering    to    the   ascending  scale  of 

JL  knowledge  and  experience.  Prayer, 
like  life,  of  which  it  is  a  part,  follow^s  the 
natural  order  of  development — ''  first  the  blade, 
then  the  ear,  after  that  the  full  corn  in  the  ear." 
The  mystics  speak  of  the  ladder  of  prayer,  the 
foot  of  which  rests  on  the  earth,  and  the  head 
of  which  reaches  to  heaven,  and  insist  that  the 
praying  soul  ought  to  keep  climbing  from  rung 
to  rung  until  he  reaches  the  top. 

In  the  prayer  of  ascent  there  are  three 
distinct  stages. 

1.  Self -prayer.  That  is,  prayer  which  is 
absorbed  in  self.  A  great  deal  of  prayer  is  of 
this  sort.  It  is  intensely,  yea,  exclusively  per- 
sonal. It  not  only  begins  with  self ;  it  also 
terminates  in  self.  If  not  necessarily  selfish,  it 
is  at  least  self -centered. 

At  the  beginning  this  is  in  a  measure  unavoid- 
able, for  a  man's  personal  interests  come  first. 
He  has  to  think  of  himself ;  his  primal  obliga- 
tions are  to  himself.  Even  within  the  sphere 
63 


64     Prayer  In  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

of  religious  interests  the  question,  "  What  must 
I  do  to  be  saved  ?  "  must  precede  the  question, 
What  can  I  do  to  save  others  ? 

In  the  list  of  a  man's  personal  needs  those  of 
the  lower  nature  claim  attention  first.  Life 
begins  in  the  physical.  The  primary  wants  of 
a  child  are  physical.  Beyond  bodily  necessities 
and  comforts  at  first  he  does  not  go.  But  as 
his  life  expands  so  do  his  desires ;  and  when  he 
once  finds  out  that  he  has  a  soul  he  begins  to 
seek  the  things  that  belong  to  it.  It  is  no  dis- 
credit therefore  to  a  man  if  his  prayer  life 
begins  where  his  natural  life  begins ;  but  there 
it  ought  not  to  stop.  He  ought  to  rise  above 
that  level,  and  give  the  primacy  to  the  things 
of  the  spirit.  The  physical  exists  for  the 
spiritual.  Physical  ends  are  relative  and  proxi- 
mate; spiritual  ends  are  absolute  and  final. 
When  temporal  ends  are  made  supreme  bitter 
disappointment  is  sure  to  follow  ;  when  spiritual 
ends  are  made  supreme  disappointment  is  im- 
possible; for  within  the  region  of  the  spirit 
*'  Every  one  that  asketh  receiveth,  and  he  that 
seeketh  findeth,  and  to  him  that  knocketh  it 
shall  be  opened." 

If  prayer  be  in  harmony  with  this  divine 
order,  that  is  to  say,  if  it  subordinates  every- 
thing in  the  outward  life  to  spiritual  ends,  it 
will  show  an  upward  movement,  a  continual 
aspiration  after  higher  things  which  the  eyes 


Gradations  in  the  Prayer  Life         65 

see  not  and  the  hands  handle  not.  It  will  give 
a  new  appraisement  to  life,  a  new  meaning  to 
religion ;  it  will  seek  for  the  evidences  of  the 
divine  acceptance,  not  in  the  measure  of  tem- 
poral blessings  poured  into  the  lap,  but  in  the 
unsearchable  riches  of  the  spiritual  kingdom 
poured  into  the  soul.  Alas,  that  so  many 
Christians  should  invert  this  order,  and  pray  as 
if  life's  true  values  were  to  be  found  in  ma- 
terial things,  thus  falling  back  to  the  level 
of  Judaism,  which  made  riches,  honour,  and 
length  of  days  the  reward  of  righteousness. 
The  rewards  of  the  Christian  religion  are  paid 
in  the  coin  of  the  heavenly  realm. 

The  nature  of  a  man's  praying  shows  upon 
what  plane  he  is  living,  for  men  always  pray 
as  they  live.  "  Low  grade  of  being,"  says  Bush- 
nell,  "  wants  low  objects ; "  and  high  grade  of 
being  wants  high  objects.  If  a  man  lives  on 
the  physical  plane  he  will  pray  on  the  physical 
plane ;  if  he  rises  to  the  spiritual  plane  he  will 
make  spiritual  things  paramount  in  his  praying. 
The  heavenly  Father  is  pleased  if  any  one,  like 
the  prodigal  son  in  the  parable,  comes  to  Him 
at  first  from  bodily  hunger,  but  He  looks  ea- 
gerly for  the  awakening  of  that  heart-hunger 
which  moved  the  prodigal  later  on.  Knowing 
the  relative  value  of  things,  He  desires  every 
praying  child  to  spiritualize  his  praying,  and 
seek  first  His  kingdom  and  righteousness,  leav- 


66     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

ing  other  things  to  be  added  or  subtracted  as 
He  in  His  wisdom  and  love  may  deem  to  be  for 
the  best. 

The  objects  of  prayer  within  the  sphere  of 
the  spirit  are  as  varied  as  the  conditions  of  life 
itself ;  but  those  that  are  essential  and  funda- 
mental are  simple  and  few.  They  have  been 
reduced  to  two,  namely,  "  mercy,  and  grace  to 
help  in  time  of  need  "  (Heb.  iv.  16) — mercy  to 
cover  all  the  sins  of  the  past,  and  grace  to  help 
in  the  struggle  of  the  future ;  the  one  meeting 
the  universal  sense  of  guilt,  the  other  the  uni- 
versal sense  of  weakness.  Powerless  in  himself 
to  effect  deliverance  from  the  condemnation  of 
a  violated  law,  the  sin-stricken  soul  is  to  cast 
himself  upon  the  forgiving  mercy  of  God; 
powerless  in  himself  to  rise  out  of  the  life  of 
the  flesh  he  is  to  fall  back  upon  the  uplifting, 
upholding,  up-pushing  power  of  God  to  sustain 
him  in  his  heavenward  flight.  And  to  attain 
these  indispensable  blessings  he  is  directed 
and  invited  "  to  come  boldly  to  the  throne  of 
grace." 

2.  Selfless  Prayer.  That  is,  prayer  which 
is  absorbed  in  others.  Those  who  reach  this 
stage  in  the  prayer  life  look  no  longer  exclu- 
sively upon  their  own  things,  but  look  also 
upon  the  things  of  others.  They  lose  them- 
selves in  their  interest  in  others.  As  their 
prayer  grows  from  individualistic  to  social,  and 


Gradations  in  the  Prayer  Life         67 

from  social  to  altruistic  its  form  changes  from 
"  Give  me  "  to  "  Give  W5,"  and  finally  to  "  Give 
them!*'^  If  they  do  not  put  the  welfare  of 
others  above  their  own,  they  at  least  put  it  be- 
fore their  own,  being  willing  to  keep  in  abey- 
ance their  personal  claims  until  the  wants  of 
others  are  supplied. 

To  pray  in  this  way  is  to  pray  vicariously ; 
it  is  to  bear  upon  the  heart  the  sins  and  woes 
of  others ;  it  is  to  identify  oneself  with  them 
and  make  their  case  one's  own.  When  this 
love-lit  fire  burns  within  the  breast  the  dross 
of  selfishness  is  consumed,  and  a  good  man's 
prayers  become  as  altruistic  as  the  rest  of  his 
life. 

Prayer  for  others  is  a  Christlike  thing.  In 
it  the  missionar}'^  passion  finds  expression.  By 
it  we  are  joined  in  one  spirit  to  our  Lord,  and 
share  with  Him  in  the  work  of  intercession  in 
which  He  has  been  engaged  since  He  passed 
into  the  unseen  realm,  thus  cooperating  with 
Him  in  the  work  of  human  redemption  which 
He  began  when  on  the  earth. 

3.  The  Prayer  of  Divine  Union.  That  is, 
prayer  w^hich  is  absorbed  in  God.  To  pray  on 
this  plane  is  to  occupy  the  highest  ground  in 
the  life  of  prayer.  The  soul  who  reaches  it 
loses  himself  in  God,  and  enters  into  His  will  in 
all  things.  And  just  because  this  prayer  of 
union  is  the  highest  form  of  prayer,  it  is  diffi- 


68     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

cult  to  attain,  and  still  more  difficult  to  main- 
tain. To  enter  into  it,  and  to  abide  in  it  calls 
for  strenuous  and  continuous  effort. 

In  the  prayer  of  union  the  human  will  melts 
so  completely  into  the  divine  will  that  we  want 
nothing  for  ourselves  that  God  does  not  want 
for  us,  and  ask  for  nothing  except  what  He  has 
planned  for  us.  No  satisfaction  whatever  could 
be  found  in  obtaining  anything  which  lay  out- 
side of  His  will ;  for  the  self -life  being  gone, 
His  glory  alone  is  sought,  and  the  one  desire 
of  the  heart  is  that  His  will  may  be  done  on 
earth  as  it  is  in  heaven. 

When  fully  possessed  of  the  Divine  Spirit  it 
is  no  longer  we  who  pray,  but  the  Spirit  of  the 
Father  who  prayeth  in  us,  and  through  us. 
He  thinks  through  our  brain,  feels  through  our 
heart,  and  prays  through  our  lips.  As  Isaac 
Pennington  has  said,  "The  breathings  which 
the  Father  gives  into  the  heart  of  the  child  are 
breathed  back  to  Him  in  the  same  spirit  of 
life."     Or  as  a  mystical  hymn  boldly  puts  it : 

**  O  never  think  a  prayer   like  this,  as  other 

prayers  j  for  know 
It  is  not  mortal  man  but  God  from  whom  these 

accents  flow, 
Behold,  God  prays.     The  lowly  saint  stands 

deep  abased  the  while, 
And  God  who  gives  the  humble  mind,  upon 

his  prayer  will  smile. " 


Gradations  in  the  Prayer  Life         69 

This  prayer  of  union  is  sometimes  swallowed 
up  in  praise,  and  the  experience  is  reached 
when  all  wants  are  met,  and  the  soul  delights 
himself  in  the  possession  of  God  Himself.  But 
this  is  only  an  occasional  mood.  When  Pierre 
de  Coulevain  exclaims,  "  I  never  ask  God  for 
anything,  I  simply  adore  and  thank  Him,"  she 
goes  to  an  unwarrantable  extreme.  What 
ought  to  be  said  is,  "  Sometimes  I  cease  to  ask 
for  anything,  I  simply  adore  and  thank  Him." 
Such  a  spirit  of  overflowing  love  is  indicative 
of  a  deep  and  underlying  trust. 


IX 

The  Scope  of  Prayer 

WE  have  already  seen  that  one  of  the 
distinctive  qualities  of  Christian 
prayer  is  the  universality  of  its 
scope.  It  is  not  provincial  in  its  spirit,  circum- 
scribed in  the  range  of  its  sympathies  or 
limited  in  the  sweep  of  its  interests.  A  Chris- 
tian prays  not  for  his  own  kith  and  kin  alone, 
but  for  all  human  kind  ;  not  for  his  own  class  or 
clan  alone  but  for  all  sorts  and  conditions  of 
men  ;  not  for  his  own  particular  church  alone, 
but  for  the  whole  Church  of  Christ ;  not  for  his 
own  nation  alone  but  for  all  nations  on  the  face 
of  the  earth. 

Enlarging  on  this  thought  we  would  remark 
that  — 

1.  Christian  prayer  Tcnows  no  spatial  limit. 
At  the  first  Christianity  was  in  danger  of  nar- 
rowing into  a  Jewish  sect.  For  a  time  its  free 
spirit  was  bound  by  Jewish  fetters.  The  one 
who  brought  to  it  deliverance  was  Paul.  To 
him,  more  than  to  any  one  else,  was  it  given  to 
bring  Christianity  into  its  own  as  a  world- 
70 


The  Scope  of  Prayer  71 

religion,  and  to  give  to  Christian  prayer  the 
world-wide  reach  which  it  now  possesses.  We 
can  hardly  imagine  how  revolutionary  these 
words  of  his  in  1  Timothy  ii.  1  must  have  been, 
"  I  exhort  first  of  all " — as  if  it  were  of  prime 
importance — "  that  supplications,  prayers,  inter- 
cessions, thanksgivings  be  made  for  all  men.'''* 
Up  to  the  time  these  words  were  written  no 
Christian  Jew  had  ever  thought  of  praying  for 
a  Gentile.  And,  indeed,  so  far  was  such  an 
exhortation  in  advance  of  human  experience  that 
the  Church  has  even  yet  hardly  got  up  to  it  in 
its  practice. 

Out  of  this  world-wide  vision  of  the  spirit 
and  aim  of  Christianity  was  born  the  mission- 
ary movement  which  led  the  Church  to  push 
its  conquests  beyond  its  Jewish  borders.  As 
soon  as  it  began  to  pray  for  all  men,  it  hastened 
to  fultill  the  Master's  commission  of  carrying 
the  Gospel  to  them.  And  in  doing  this  it  did 
what  the  Church  has  done  ever  since — girded 
itself  to  bring  to  fulfillment  its  own  prayers. 

2.  Christian  grayer  knows  no  moral  li?mt. 
It  looks  upon  every  man  as  being  upon  the 
footstool  of  merc}^  It  is  as  deep  in  its  reach 
morally  as  it  is  wide  in  its  scope  territorially.  It 
regards  no  one  as  beyond  the  pale  of  hope — as 
being  too  far  gone  for  the  grace  of  God  to 
restore  him,  or  as  having  wandered  too  far  from 
the  fold  to  be  found  and  recovered.     The  pray- 


72     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

ing  Christian  confidently  asks,  "  Is  there  any- 
thing too  hard  for  the  Lord  ?  "  He  believes 
that  there  is  nothing  that  comes  within  the 
legitimate  ends  of  prayer  that  God  cannot  do. 
He  no  more  thinks  of  distrusting  his  resources 
in  the  spiritual  world  than  in  the  natural 
world.  He  rejoices  to  think  that  God  is  at 
work  in  the  secret  places  of  the  soul,  restrain- 
ing from  evil,  imparting  helpful  influences,  and 
changing  the  thoughts  and  purposes  of  the 
heart.  And  when  no  indication  is  given  of  any 
moral  change,  he  takes  comfort  from  the  reflec- 
tion that  no  one  can  ever  tell  what  is  going  on 
beneath  the  surface.  It  is  this  faith  in  God's 
measureless  power  that  enables  him  to  remove 
mountains.  Because  of  it  Jesus  has  said  that 
to  Him  "  all  things  are  possible " ;  not,  of 
course,  all  things  absolutely ;  not  things  that 
imply  a  contradiction,  or  that  conflict  with  the 
moral  order  that  God  has  established,  but  all 
things  within  the  circle  of  God's  eternal  pur- 
pose, and  man's  highest  welfare  ;  all  things,  in 
short,  that  a  soul  attuned  to  God's  perfect  will 
would  care  to  have  or  would  think  of  asking. 

How  often  have  we  seen  the  seemingly  im- 
possible become  the  actual.  A  case  in  point  is 
that  told  by  Charles  Darwin,  who,  when  he 
first  saw  the  wretched  people  of  Terra  del 
Fuego,  considered  them  as  hopelessly  depraved ; 
but  when  a  few  years  after  he  revisited  that 


The  Scope  of  Prayer  73 

region  and  saw  the  transformation  which  the 
missionaries  had  accomplished,  he  marvelled, 
and  became  an  ardent  advocate  and  supporter 
of  foreign  missions.  There  is  no  man  or  race  of 
men  so  far  sunk  as  to  be  outside  the  pale  of 
hope,  and  thus  be  past  j^raying  for.  To  have  a 
place  on  God's  fair  earth  is  to  be  on  praying 
ground. 

3.  Christian  prayer  has  no  time  Ihnit. 
Nowhere  is  it  more  urgently  called  for  than  at 
dying  beds.  It  follows  loved  ones  to  the  edge 
of  the  grave.  But  what  of  those  who  have 
fared  forth  into  the  unknown  ?  Have  they 
gone  where  our  prayers  cannot  follow  them  ? 
Perhaps  we  have  been  too  ready  to  assume  that 
they  have.  We  are  still  bound  to  them  by 
close  and  tender  ties.  They  are  still  the  ob- 
jects of  our  interest  and  love.  If  our  hearts  are 
allowed  to  speak  would  they  not  instinctively 
cry  after  them : 

"How  can  I  cease  to  pray  for  thee!    Some- 
where 
In  God's  great  universe  thou  art  to-day  ; 
Can  He  not  reach  thee  with  His  tender  caref 
Can  He  not  hear  me  when  for  thee  I  pray  ? 
What  matters  it  with  Him  who  holds  within 
The  hollow  of  His  hands  all  worlds,  all  space, 
That  thou  art  done  with  earthly  pain  and  sin  ? 
Somewhere  within  His  care  thou  hast  a  place  ; 
Somewhere  thou  livest  and  hast  need  of  Him  ; 


74     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

Somewhere  thy  soul   sees   higher  heights  to 

climb ; 
And  somewhere  still  there  may  be  valleys  dim 
That  thou  must  pass  to  reach  the  hill  sublime, 
Theu  all  the  more  because  thou  canst  not  hear 
Poor  human  words  of  blessing,  will  I  pray. 
O  true,  brave  heart,  God  bless  thee  wher'so'er 
In  His  great  universe  thou  art  to-day  !  '^ 

The  secrets  of  the  life  beyond  are  jealously 
guarded  ;  yet  so  long  as  the  conviction  abides 
that  the  living  and  the  dead  are  bound  together 
in  indissoluble  bonds,  prayer  for  the  dead  will 
be  looked  upon  as  something  other  than  "an 
unchartered  liberty."  It  is  surprising  to  find 
how  many  earnest  souls  pray  for  their  loved 
ones  who  have  passed  within  the  veil,  but  say 
nothing  about  it.  Have  they  any  ground  for 
such  prayer  ?  This  much  may  at  least  be  said : 
If  the  New  Testament  does  not  encourage  it, 
neither  does  it  forbid  it.  We  know  that  the 
early  Church  gave  it  a  place  in  its  litanies,  and 
included  it  within  the  range  of  its  teaching  and 
practice.  Listen,  for  instance,  to  St.  Cyprian 
as  he  exhorts,  "  Whosoever  of  us  goes  home  be 
fore  the  other,  by  the  speed  of  the  divine 
favour,  let  our  affections  continue  before  the 
Lord ;  and  let  our  prayers  for  brothers  or 
sisters  cease  not  before  the  mercy  of  the 
Father." 

The  Protestant  position  is  the  result  of  a 


The  Scope  of  Prayer  75 

revolt  from  the  Eomish  doctrine  of  purgatory, 
according  to  which  the  destiny  of  the  dead  can 
be  affected  by  the  prayer  of  the  living,  and 
"  spirits  in  prison  "  may  be  delivered  and  helped 
on  their  upward  way.  For  such  a  doctrine  the 
teaching  of  the  New  Testament  furnishes  no 
support  whatsoever. 

The  majority  of  Christian  believers  put  a 
restraint  upon  prayer  for  the  dead,  under  any 
form,  and  rest  in  the  Infinite  Goodness,  trust- 
ing the  unknown  for  the  known.  A  few — and 
their  number  grows — no  less  reverent,  hum- 
ble, and  trustful,  project  their  prayers  into 
the  world  beyond.  They  believe  that  God's 
universe  is  one,  and  that  when  they  touch  the 
spiritual  all  boundary  lines  disappear.  They  be- 
lieve that  prayer  should  embrace  God's  final 
purpose,  which  includes  the  home-coming  of 
every  wandering  child,  and  the  glorification  of 
every  imperfect  saint.  That  all  prayer  which 
lies  within  the  sweep  of  His  redeeming  purpose 
should  be  well  pleasing  and  acceptable  to  Him, 
they  feel  well  assured.  Are  they  mistaken  ? 
Can  the  prayer  of  mortal  man  ever  outrun  the 
thought  and  love  of  the  Infinite  God  ?  Who 
shall  dare  affirm  it  ? 


The  Pleroma  or  Fullness  of  Prayer 

THEEE  are  elements  of  truth  in  all 
religions.  Christianity  does  not  con- 
tain all  the  truth ;  what  it  contains  is 
the  fullness  of  truth.  As  Clement  remarks, 
*'  It  gathers  the  separate  fragments  of  truth  and 
makes  them  one."  It  comes  to  every  soul 
struggling  towards  the  light,  and  says,  "  Yet 
show  I  unto  you  a  more  excellent  way."  In 
like  manner  there  are  elements  of  good  in  all 
prayer.  Christian  prayer  is  not  the  only  true 
prayer,  but  is  the  pleroma,  or  fullness  of  prayer. 
An  interesting  line  of  study  within  the 
domain  of  comparative  religion  would  consist 
in  comparing  Christian  prayer  with  other  forms 
of  prayer.  Most  departments  of  comparative 
religion  have  been  pretty  thoroughly  traversed, 
but  comparative  prayer  seems  to  have  been  in 
a  great  measure  overlooked.  We  have  been  so 
much  taken  up  with  discussing  the  points  of 
diiference  that  we  have  sometimes  lost  sight  of 
the  underlying  unities.  "We  are  just  beginning 
to  see  that  all  prayer,  being  one  in  origin,  and 
one  in  object,  has  many  elements  in  common ; 
76 


Fullness  of  Prayer  77 

and  that  therefore  praying  souls  everywhere 
may  find  much  upon  which  they  can  unite. 
But  Christian  prayer,  while  having  many  points 
of  vital  contact  with  all  true  prayer,  has  dif- 
ferentiating elements  which  put  it  in  a  class  by 
itself,  and  distinguish  it  from  all  other  prayer, 
just  as  Christian  ethics  are  distinguished  from 
all  other  ethics.  It  can  accompany  those  who 
are  outside  »of  its  circle  as  far  as  they  are  able 
to  go,  but  it  goes  farther.  It  is  superior  to  the 
highest  forms  of  heathen  or  of  Jewish  prayer ; 
and  while  gathering  into  itself  all  that  is  good 
in  them,  it  adds  much  that  is  new.  To  it  be- 
longs the  glory  of  being  a  religion  of  complete- 
ness and  fulfillment. 

Perhaps  in  nothing  is  the  fullness  of  Chris- 
tian prayer  more  fully  brought  out  than  in  the 
way  in  which  it  embraces  and  combines  all  that 
is  essential  in  the  various  forms  in  which  man 
makes  his  approach  to  God.  Of  these  forms 
the  most  distinctive  are  the  following : 

1.  Men  come  to  God  as  creatures  to  a  crea- 
tor. This  is  the  common  naturalistic  ground 
upon  which  all  praying  souls  stand  together. 
They  have  a  common  sense  of  creaturely  de- 
pendence, a  common  trust  in  God  as  the  un- 
derlying ground  of  their  lives.  They  come  to 
Him  as  "  unto  a  faithful  creator  "  (1  Pet.  iv.  19), 
who  keeps  faith  with  man  in  the  revolution  of 
the  seasons,  and  in  the  orderly  operation  of  his 


78     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

laws.  He  is  a  God  who  can  be  depended  upon ; 
and  yet  He  does  strange  things.  He  is  loved 
and  feared,  He  is  sought  and  shunned.  The 
pleasant  things  in  nature  are  His  smiles ;  the 
terrible  things  in  nature  are  His  frowns.  On 
the  mountain  top,  under  the  stars,  men  build 
their  altars  to  Him.  They  find  Him  every- 
where in  His  works.  They  hear  Him  in  the 
winds,  they  see  Him  in  the  flowers ;  they  feel 
the  touch  of  His  mysterious  presence  in  their 
hearts.  All  nature  is  a  temple  in  which  they 
worship  Him.  They  pray  to  Him  not  only  be- 
cause they  depend  upon  Him  as  the  Great  First 
Cause,  but  also  because  they  see  in  Him  the 
primal  source  of  every  earthly  blessing,  and  the 
Mighty  Friend  whose  unseen  hand  supplies 
their  every  need. 

2.  TKey  come  to  Him  as  suhjects  to  a  Icing, 
That  is  an  aspect  of  prayer  common  to  men 
who  have  outgrown  their  nomadic  life,  and 
have  come  under  some  form  of  regal  govern- 
ment. They  begin  to  think  of  God  in  terms 
of  kinghood,  and  to  address  Him  as  a  king. 
They  look  upon  Him  as  seated  upon  a  throne 
''  high  and  lifted  up " ;  they  venture  into  His 
throne-room  with  awe  and  trembling,  counting 
it  a  special  mark  of  favour  to  be  given  an 
audience ;  they  present  their  petition  before 
Him  with  profound  humility,  and  wait  with 
bated  breath  the  announcement  of  His  sover- 


Fullness  of  Prayer  79 

eign  will.  This  was  the  mould  into  which  the 
prayer  of  the  Jewish  people  naturally  ran. 
Jehovah  was  their  king:  and  as  such  they 
made  their  appeal  to  Him.  They  came  before 
Him  saying,  "  Let  the  king  hear  us  when  we 
call."  "  Hearken  unto  my  cry,  my  king,  and 
my  God." 

Christian  prayer  has  absorbed  this  idea,  as 
the  familiar  lines  indicate  : 

**  Thou  art  coming  to  a  King, 

Large  petitions  with  thee  bring, 
For  His  love  and  power  are  such 
None  can  ever  ask  too  much." 

This  attitude  is  right,  inasmuch  as  the  rela- 
tion upon  which  it  is  founded  is  real.  God  is 
the  great  moral  governor  of  the  universe.  We 
are  all  His  subjects.  At  His  throne  we  are  to 
humbly  bow  when  we  approach  Him  in  prayer, 
touching  the  golden  scepter  of  His  mercy  which 
He  holds  out  to  us,  and  making  our  requests  to 
Him  in  the  confidence  which  the  knowledge  of 
His  love  and  power  implies. 

3.  They  come  to  Him  as  i^riests  to  their  God. 
Every  religion  has  its  priests— its  go-betweens, 
who  are  supposed  to  be  on  terms  of  peculiar 
intimacy  with  their  god,  and  are  able  to  secure 
for  others  special  favours  which  they  are  unable 
to  secure  for  themselves.  The  necessity  for  the 
aid   of  these  go-betweens  has  arisen  from  the 


8o     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

sense  of  personal  unworthiness  on  the  part  of 
the  suppliant.  His  sin  has  separated  between 
him  and  his  god,  and  he  has  felt  the  need  of  a 
mediator  to  plead  his  cause.  So  deep-rooted 
has  been  this  sense  of  need  that  priesthood  has 
outlived  all  the  changes  that  have  taken  place 
in  the  constitution  of  society.  It  has  often 
been  a  hollow  pretension,  and  has  flourished  by 
the  craftiness  with  which  it  has  imposed  upon 
the  credulous;  it  has  shrouded  itself  in  mys- 
tery, and  surrounded  itself  with  pomp  and 
ceremony ;  but  not  by  its  appeal  to  the  marvel- 
lous, the  mysterious,  and  the  spectacular,  but 
by  its  grip  upon  the  conscience  has  it  retained 
its  hold  upon  men.  It  is  a  standing  witness  to 
the  imperishableness  of  man's  religious  nature. 

Eecognizing  man's  inherent  need  of  a  priest 
or  mediator  Christianity  sets  forth  Jesus  as  the 
one  in  whom  that  need  is  fully  met.  His  priest- 
hood is  superior  to  all  others ;  it  supersedes  all 
others.  For  its  coming  all  other  priesthood 
prepared  the  way.  In  it  the  priestly  ideal 
found  complete  expression. 

But  Christianity  goes  still  farther  and  de- 
clares the  universal  priesthood  of  believers,  thus 
doing  away  forever  with  a  priestly  class,  and 
giving  to  every  divinely  anointed  soul  the  right 
of  access  into  God's  holy  presence.  This  idea 
is  presented  explicitly  by  Peter,  who,  speaking 
of  the  whole  body  of  believers,  describes  them 


Fullness  of  Prayer  8l 

as  "  a  holy  priesthood,"  "  a  royal  priesthood  " 
(1  Pet.  ii.  5,  U).  They  are  holy  ia  the  sense 
that  they  are  separated  from  the  world,  not 
literally,  but-  morally ;  they  are  royal  in  the 
sense  that  they  exercise  their  priestl}^  functions 
as  princes  of  the  royal  household,  being  sons  of 
the  king.  They  constitute  the  highest  order 
of  priests  ever  known  among  men,  taking  rank 
with  Christ,  under  whom  their  priesthood  is 
held,  and  in  whose  name  it  is  exercised.  The 
"  spiritual  sacrifices  "  which  they  offer  are  sacri- 
fices of  the  highest  grade,  and  mark  them  off 
as  the  divinely  chosen  ministrants  to  sense- 
bound  souls  of  the  priceless  things  which  be- 
long to  the  kingdom  of  the  spirit. 

4.  They  come  to  Him  as  sons  to  a  father. 
This  is  prayer  at  its  best — the  pleroma  or  full- 
ness of  prayer.  A  son  stands  closer  to  his  fa- 
ther than  a  priest  to  his  god.  To  him  belongs 
freedom  of  intercourse  with  his  father.  A  son 
of  the  household  whose  heart  is  right,  is  always 
at  home  with  his  father. 

Till  Christ  came  this  mode  of  approach  was 
unknown.  When  He  uttered  the  startling 
words, ''  No  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by 
Me,"  there  came  the  eager  reply,  "  Show  us  the 
Father,  and  that  will  satisfy  us."  In  answer  to 
this  He  said,  "He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath 
seen  the  Father,"  thus  announcing  Himself  not 
merely  as  a  revealer  of  the  Father,  but  as  a 


§2     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

revelation  of  the  Father.  In  a  poetical  and 
national  sense  men  had  known  of  God  as 
Father  before  this ;  now,  seeing  the  Father 
revealed  in  a  human  life,  they  could  know  Him 
in  living,  loving,  personal  relations.  In  this 
new  way  of  approach  to  God  is  found  the 
climax  of  the  self -revelation  of  God  to  man. 
This  is  the  last  lesson  in  prayer,  as  it  is  also  the 
first.  Farther  than  this  God  could  not  take 
the  human  race  in  His  age-long  course  of  edu- 
cation. And  closer  to  God  than  this  relation- 
ship implies  they  could  not  get. 

While  these  four  conceptions  of  prayer  all 
blend  together  in  Christian  experience,  the 
greatest  of  them  is  the  last.  A  praying  Chris- 
tian may  sometimes  go  to  God  as  a  creature  to 
a  creator,  as  a  subject  to  a  king,  as  a  priest  to 
his  god ;  but  his  prevailing  attitude  will  be 
that  of  a  child  to  his  father.  This  is  the  way 
that  Jesus  went ;  it  is  the  way  in  which  He 
taught  us  to  go;  and  it  is  the  only  way  in 
which  is  to  be  found  the  fullness  of  a  life  of 
prayer. 


XI 

Intercessory  Prayer  in  Its  Highest  Form 

UP  to  the  present  time  the  priestly  form 
of  intercession  is  the  one  that  has  al- 
most exclusively  obtained  in  Christian 
thought.  As  set  forth  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews,  the  high  priestliood  of  Jesus  has  been 
held,  and  rightly  so,  to  carry  with  it,  by  im- 
plication, the  priesthood  of  believers,  and  their 
participation  in  the  intercession  of  their  great 
high  priest.  They  are  to  fill  up  that  which  re- 
mains of  His  priestly  sacrifice  and  mission. 
They  are  to  join  with  Him  in  the  desire  that 
He  may  see  of  the  travail  of  His  soul,  and  be 
satisfied.  As  priests  they  are  to  offer  prayers 
that  bleed — prayers  that  have  in  them  the 
sacrificial  element — prayers  that  are  accom- 
panied with  the  sacrifice  of  self. 

The  priestly  form  of  intercession  will  never 
die  out,  inasmuch  as  it  expresses  one  of  the 
vital  truths  carried  over  from  Judaism  into 
Christianity,  and  constitutes  the  central  and 
vitalizing  element  in  every  phase  of  sacerdotal- 
ism ;  and  yet  it  is  passing  strange  that  it  should 
so  often  have  been  taken  as  the  only  form  in 
83 


84     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

which  the  doctrine  of  Christian  intercession  has 
been  set  forth.  A  wide  and  careful  reading  of 
the  New  Testament  on  the  subject  of  prayer 
will  bring  increasingly  into  view  another  form 
of  intercession,  namely,  Irotherly  intercession. 
And  this  is  the  highest  form  of  all.  As  the 
prayer  of  a  son  to  a  Father  it  is  the  highest 
form  of  personal  prayer,  the  prayer  of  a 
brother  for  a  brother  is  the  highest  form  of 
social  prayer.  Sonship  is  above  priesthood,  for 
sonship  is  a  natural  relation,  while  priesthood 
is  an  official  relation.  In  the  possession  of  the 
spirit  of  sonship  brotherly  intercession  is  im- 
plied. When  God  sends  the  spirit  of  His  Son 
into  our  hearts,  whereby  we  cry,  *'Abba, 
Father,"  we  begin  at  once  to  think  of  our 
brethren  and  to  pray  for  them.  And  when 
Jesus  gave  His  disciples  their  first  lesson  in 
prayer  He  taught  them  to  pray  in  a  brotherly 
fashion,  joining  with  all  God's  praying  chil- 
dren in  saying,  "  Our  Father,  give  us  our  daily 
bread  ;  forgive  us  our  debts ;  lead  us  not  into 
temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  evil."  It  is  as 
if  one  member  of  God's  great  household  asked 
the  Father's  blessing  upon  the  other  members, 
as  if  one  brother  asked  the  Father's  blessing 
upon  his  known  and  unknown  brethren.  But 
no  one  figure  of  speech  can  exhaust  a  spiritual 
reality.  For  instance,  the  names  and  titles 
given  to  God  present  different  angles  of  truth, 


Intercessory  Prayer  85 

but  all  together  do  nob  express  the  full  truth. 
Sometimes  the  blending  of  metaphors  is  called 
for  because  of  the  poverty  of  language.  We 
have  an  example  of  this  when  Paul  speaks  of 
the  Church  as  **  a  living  temple,"  and  of  in- 
dividual Christians  as  "  living  stones "  in  the 
temple.  So  when  we  speak  of  the  Christian  as 
a  priest  we  may  describe  him  as  a  brotherly 
priest,  and  when  we  speak  of  him  as  a  brother 
we  may  with  equal  propriety  speak  of  him  as  a 
priestly  brother.  In  a  current  magazine  article 
Father  Kelly,  Chaplain  of  the  Ohio  State  Peni- 
tentiary, is  spoken  of  as  "  the  strangest  priest 
you  ever  heard  of "  :  his  strangeness  consist- 
ing in  the  fact  that  he  is  "the  elder  brother 
of  sinners."  It  is  this  strange  kind  of  priest 
that  every  Christian  ought  to  be.  Alas,  that 
the  species  should  be  so  rare ! 

In  introducing  the  subject  of  the  high  priest- 
hood of  Jesus  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  unites  the  brotherly  and  priestly  ele- 
ments in  one  by  saying,  "  It  behooved  Him  in 
all  things  to  be  made  like  unto  His  brethren 
that  He  might  become  a  merciful  and  faithful 
high  priest  in  the  things  pertaining  to  God  " 
(ii.  17).  That  is  to  say.  His  identification  with 
men  as  brethren  was  a  necessary  condition  to 
the  proper  exercise  of  His  priestly  office  on 
their  behalf. 

We  have  been  too  ready  to  give  to  the  pray- 


86     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

ing  of  Jesus  an  exclusively  priestly  cast,  when 
it  is  better  interpreted  in  the  terms  of  brother- 
liness.  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  high  priest- 
hood of  Jesus  is  referred  to  only  in  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews,  and  that  we  might  expect,  in- 
asmuch as  that  epistle  is  addressed  to  the  Jews 
who  thought  in  the  temple  imagery,  and  it  says 
much  for  the  charm  and  significance  of  this  par- 
ticular figure  that  it  has  been  hallowed  through- 
out the  Christian  centuries,  and  is  unto  many 
to-day  as  vital  as  it  ever  was.  But  no  symbol 
is  of  the  essence  of  truth  ;  nor  does  any  symbol 
exhaust  the  truth.  There  are  other  forms  in 
which  the  intercessory  work  of  Christ  may  be 
expressed  besides  that  of  a  priest — forms  which 
will  convey  to  many  a  deeper  prayer  signifi- 
cance. The  man  on  the  street,  at  any  rate, 
will  understand  us  if  we  speak  of  Christ's  in- 
tercession and  our  own,  on  his  behalf,  as  broth- 
erly, rather  than  priestly. 

A  striking  illustration  of  the  way  in  which 
the  priestly  idea  has  been  read  into  the  praying 
of  Jesus,  where  it  obviously  does  not  belong,  is 
furnished  in  the  title  which  is  generally  given 
to  Christ's  farewell  prayer  to  His  disciples,  re- 
corded in  the  seventeenth  chapter  of  the  Gospel 
by  John.  It  is  almost  universally  spoken  of  as 
His  great  high  priestly  intercessory  prayer. 
How  it  ever  came  to  receive  that  title  is  a 
marvel ;  for  there  is  in  it  not  a  single  shred  of 


Intercessory  Prayer  87 

priestly  quality.  From  beginning  to  end  it  is 
addressed  to  the  Father,  as  all  the  prayers  of 
Jesus  are,  and  it  is  to  be  interpreted  not  in  the 
terras  of  priesthood  but  of  brotherhood.  It 
does  not  suggest  a  high  priest  praying  on  be- 
half of  those  without  the  veil,  but  a  brother 
standing  beside  his  brethren  asking  the  Father's 
benison  to  rest  upon  them.  In  that  prayer,  in 
which  He  closed  His  earthly  work,  He  gave  ex- 
pression to  what  was  deepest  in  His  heart.  He 
prayed  for  the  unity  of  the  household  of  faith ; 
for  their  present  sanctification  and  ultimate 
glorification;  and  in  view  of  the  fiery  trials 
which  were  about  to  break  upon  them  He  com- 
mitted them  with  tender  affection  unto  the 
Father's  hands.  The  flavour  and  spirit  of  His 
prayer  is  brotherly  rather  than  priestly,  and  it 
might  well  be  called  The  Farewell  Prayer  of 
the  Great  Elder  Brother. 

One  thing  is  certain  :  the  tendency  to-day  is 
towards  the  brotherly  rather  than  the  priestly 
idea  of  intercession.  The  spirit  of  democracy  is 
in  the  air.  Thrones  are  toppling.  Deinoc?-acy 
is  coming  like  a  flood.  Our  conception  of  God 
as  Father  is  leading  inevitably  to  the  democra- 
tizing of  the  idea  of  His  rule  among  men  ;  and 
the  time-worn  phrase  "the  kingdom  of  God" 
will  in  time  be  supplanted  by  the  more  appro- 
priate phrase  "  the  republic  of  God,"  and  even 
where  the  old  phrase  may  still  be  retained  it 


88     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

will  have  a  new  content  of  meaning.  The 
vision  of  John  of  ''a  kingdom  of  priests "  (Rev. 
i.  6)  has  already  lost  its  attractiveness.  The 
social  goal  to  which  men  of  to-day  are  looking 
forward  is  not  to  be  realized  in  universal  priest- 
hood, but  in  universal  brotherhood. 

The  modern  view-point  is  that  expressed  by 
John  in  the  words,  "  If  any  man  sin  we  have  an 
advocate  with  the  Father,  Jesus  Christ  the 
righteous  "  (1  John  ii.  1).  Here  the  intercession 
of  Jesus  is  set  forth  not  as  that  of  an  advocate 
pleading  the  cause  of  his  client  before  a  judge, 
but  as  that  of  a  brother  pleading  the  cause  of 
his  brethren  before  a  father.  The  one  "  who 
ever  liveth  to  make  intercession  for  us  "  is  one 
who  wears  our  nature.  The  High  Priest  is  our 
Elder  Brother.  His  advocacy  is  a  brotherly 
act,  pleasing  to  the  Father ;  for  who  is  so  re- 
sponsive as  a  father  ?  This  is  intercession  in  its 
highest  and  final  form — for  closer  than  this  no 
intercession  can  ever  get.  It  is  also  intercession 
in  the  form  that  fits  into  the  thought  and  mood 
of  the  times.  We  no  longer  think  in  sacerdotal 
or  juridical  terms.  We  think  in  terms  of  living 
relationships,  and  the  kind  of  intercession  that 
appeals  to  us  is  that  of  a  brother  going  to  a 
father  and  asking  some  favour  for  his  brethren. 
That  we  can  understand ;  for  within  the  circle 
of  human  relationship  it  is  an  every -day  experi- 
ence. 


Intercessory  Prayer  89 

The  conception  of  intercessory  prayer  as  a 
brotherly  act,  springing  out  of  a  brotherly  rela- 
tion, and  as  the  appeal  of  one  child  of  the 
Father  on  behalf  of  another,  will  preclude  for- 
ever the  possibility  of  any  one  ever  falling  into 
the  error  of  supposing  that  the  end  of  intercessory 
prayer  is  to  awaken  God's  interest,  or  to  over- 
come His  unwillingness,  and  to  stir  Him  up  to 
action.  As  a  Father  He  is  solicitous  about  the 
welfare  of  all  His  children,  and  is  glad  when 
any  one  of  them  enters  into  sympathetic  rela- 
tion with  Him  regarding  any  other,  and  begins 
to  labour  along  with  Him  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  thing  upon  which  His  heart  is  set. 
Brotherly  intercession  will  be  no  less  sacrificial 
than  priestly  intercession.  It  will  call  for  self- 
denying  effort,  and  for  soul-sweat.  When  a 
brother  battles  for  a  brother's  soul  there  will  be 
a  new  Calvary.     That  way  redemption  Kes. 


XII 
Prayer  as  a  Spiritual  Force 

IT  is  within  the  upper  realm,  the  realm  of 
the  spirit,  that  prayer  has  its  chief  field  of 
operation ;  hence  it  is  to  this  sphere  of 
things  that  we  must  mainly  look  for  evidences 
of  answers  to  prayer.  Yet  just  because  the 
answers  to  prayer  within  this  sphere  may  not 
always  be  susceptible  of  demonstration  we  are 
apt  to  miss  them  altogether.  The  outward  is 
the  obvious  ;  and  with  regard  to  the  things  of 
the  spirit  "  we  walk  by  faith,  not  by  sight." 

When  Jesus  saw  that  His  followers  were  fiix- 
ing  their  thoughts  upon  His  miracles  as  the 
chief  proofs  of  His  Messiabship,  He  said  to  them, 
"  Greater  works  than  these  shall  ye  do,  because 
I  go  unto  the  Father  "  (John  xiv.  12).  Through 
the  power  of  the  Spirit,  which  He  was  about  to 
bestow,  they  were  to  perform  greater  works 
than  healing  the  sick  and  raising  the  dead — 
works  demanding  a  higher  kind  of  power. 
Moral  miracles  were  to  be  wrought  by  them, 
consisting  of  healing  sick  souls,  and  bringing  to 
life  those  who  were  spiritually  dead ;  and  by 
90 


A  Spiritual  Force  91 

these  "  greater  works  "  their  message  was  to 
win  more  convincing  attestation. 

To  this  higher  ground  the  Church  of  to-day 
is  to  move  in  her  prayer  life  by  furnishing  in 
the  moral  transformation  of  the  soul  and  of 
society,  which  prayer  effects,  the  higher  evi- 
dence which  the  age  demands.  Physical 
wonders  have  become  so  common  that  this  age 
has  ceased  to  be  greatly  moved  by  them.  Its 
challenge  to  the  Church  is  not  to  outdo  the 
miracles  of  Christ,  but  to  show  that  she  has 
power  sufficient  for  the  greater  work  of  the 
world's  regeneration.  Can  she  heal  the  wounds 
of  humanity  ?  Can  she  meet  the  immeasurable 
needs  of  hungry  souls  ?  Can  she  win  to  right- 
eousness a  world  lying  in  wickedness  ?  Can 
she  bring  a  world  that  is  hostile  to  God  into 
subjection  to  His  sovereign  sway  ?  Can  she 
save  those  who  are  lost  ?  Can  she  give  life  to 
those  who  are  dead  ?  The  world  is  waiting  to 
see  whether,  as  she  prays  for  these  things,  her 
prayer  possesses  any  potency  to  bring  them 
about. 

If  we  examine  the  testimony  of  Christian 
experience  throughout  the  centuries,  it  will  be 
seen  that  the  main  value  of  prayer  has  always 
been  found  to  consist  in  the  spiritual  blessings 
which  it  has  conveyed  to  the  soul.  It  has 
brought  comfort  in  sorrow,  peace  in  trouble, 
strength  in  weakness,  light  in  darkness,  hope  in 


92     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

despair.  The  riches  which  it  has  bestowed  have 
been  the  unsearchable  riches  of  the  spirit. 
And  with  the  praying  man  himself  there  has 
also  been  an  unshakable  conviction  that  in 
some  unknown  way  his  prayers  have  been  the 
means  of  conveying  spiritual  benefit  to  others. 

When  we  look  at  prayer  apart  from  its  reflex 
influence,  and  especially  when  we  come  to 
inquire  into  its  action  upon  others,  it  is  seen  to 
be  a  distinct  kind  of  psychic  energy  flowing  out 
from  the  praying  soul  into  the  world's  life — a 
sublime  form  of  telepathy  by  which  impulses 
and  suggestions  are  transmitted  to  those  who 
are  *'  psychologically  attuned  "  to  the  one  who 
prays.  It  makes  direct  impact  and  impression 
upon  other  souls,  and  creates  a  new  atmosphere 
around  them,  in  which  better  purposes  more 
readily  come  to  fruition.  But  that  is  not  all. 
It  connects  with  God ;  draws  down  His  bless- 
ing ;  opens  a  channel  for  the  outgoing  of  His 
saving  energy  ;  affords  Him  a  medium  through 
which  to  work  ;  supplies  conditions  which  en- 
able Him  to  do  things  which  otherwise  would 
have  been  impossible. 

When  we  attempt  to  understand  this  inter- 
action of  the  human  agent  and  the  divine  actor 
in  prayer  we  touch  the  mysterious.  Enough 
for  us  to  know  that  along  the  connecting  lines 
of  personal  love  and  s^^mpathy,  which  our 
prayers  establish,  God  ever  works,  doing  all 


A  Spiritual  Force  93 

that  He  wisely  and  righteously  can  to  bring 
about  the  desired  result.  But  the  refractory 
nature  of  the  material  with  which  He  has 
sometimes  to  work  must  be  taken  into  account 
— which  is  another  way  of  saying  that  in  the 
final  outworking  of  His  power,  when  dealing 
with  human  souls,  there  is  always  an  unreckon- 
able  element. 

Were  the  conversion  of  a  soul  merely  a 
question  of  the  exercise  of  omnipotence  it 
would  be  a  simple  matter.  But  moral  beings 
must  be  acted  upon  by  moral  forces,  and  in 
harmony  with  moral  laws.  For  their  surrender 
even  God  must  wait.  The  idea  that  a  group  of 
praying  people  can  turn  a  battery  of  spiritual 
power  upon  a  soul,  forcing  him  to  capitulate,  is 
contrary  to  the  law  of  mind.  Not  until  man 
with  his  own  hand  holds  out  the  white  flag  can 
the  citadel  of  the  soul  be  taken.  An  illustra- 
tion of  the  power  of  prayer  has  been  taken 
from  an  incident  in  the  life  of  Sir  Christopher 
Wren,  the  builder  of  Westminster  Abbey. 
Wishing  to  make  an  alteration  in  the  building, 
which  involved  effecting  an  opening  in  a  thick 
wall,  he  used  a  log  for  a  battering  ram,  and 
kept  pounding  at  the  same  spot,  day  by  day, 
until  the  wall  gave  way.  The  application  made 
is  that  if  we  only  keep  pounding  long  enough 
and  hard  enough  something  will  eventually 
yield.     Usually  it  will.     But  prayer  has  to  do 


94     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

with  moral  beings  who  have  the  power  to  resist 
every  influence  that  can  be  brought  to  bear 
upon  them  ;  and  to  assume  that  the  irresistibil- 
ity that  belongs  to  physical  force  belongs  also 
to  moral  power  is  to  invite  the  possibility  of 
the  bitterest  sorrow  and  disappointment. 

But  even  when  the  final  result  has  not  been 
gained  something  has  been  accomplished. 
Every  blow  loosens  some  particle ;  and  some 
glad  day,  after  hope  deferred  has  made  the 
heart  grow  sick,  the  massive  stones  may  fall 
from  their  place,  and  an  opening  in  the  wall  of 
opposition  be  made. 

Prayer  is  like  the  making  of  a  fire.  We  lay 
on  the  paper,  the  wood,  and  the  coal,  and  at 
some  unexpected  time  the  divine  spark  may 
kindle  them  into  a  blaze.  Although  the 
prayers  offered  up  through  long  years  may 
show  no  visible  results,  they  never  return  void, 
but  are  like  the  snow  and  rain  which  sink  out 
of  sight  into  the  soil,  and  after  many  days 
cause  the  golden  grain  to  appear,  to  "  give  seed 
to  the  sower,  and  bread  to  the  eater." 

In  nothing  we  can  do  for  others  are  we  more 
in  accord  with  what  is  deepest  in  the  heart  of 
God  than  when  we  energize  in  prayer  for  their 
salvation.  His  desire  to  see  all  men  saved  we 
cannot  measure ;  and  we  may  be  sure  that  He 
is  leaving  nothing  undone  to  compass  that  end. 
In  one  of  those  wonderful  flashes  of  spiritual 


A  Spiritual  Force  9^ 

insight  which  are  found  in  the  Old  Testament 
Isaiah  declares  that  "  from  of  old  men  have  not 
heard,  nor  perceived  by  the  ear,  neither  hath 
the  eye  seen  a  God  beside  Thee,  who  worketh 
for  those  who  waiteth  for  Him  "  (Ixiv.  4).  With 
all  the  force  of  a  new  revelation  the  prophet 
states  the  truth  that  while  we  are  waiting  God 
is  working.  He  is  behind  all  things,  with  un- 
sleeping activity  shaping  them  to  His  pre- 
destined plan.  It  may  take  Him  a  long  time 
to  bring  about  the  things  we  ask,  and  that  He 
has  planned ;  hence  we  are  to  wait  upon  Him 
with  calmness  and  patience.  If  in  the  case  of 
which  the  Apostle  James  cites  as  a  remarkable 
answer  to  prayer,  it  took  three  years  to  work 
out  the  result  in  the  physical  realm,  need  we 
wonder  if  in  the  spiritual  realm  it  should  some- 
times take  the  eternities  for  God  to  fulfill  His 
purpose.  But  whether  the  answer  come  soon 
or  late  He  never  forgets  our  prayers,  nor  does 
He  cease  His  effort  to  bring  them  to  fulfill- 
ment. 

*^  The  work  began  when  first  your  prayer  was  ut- 
tered ; 
And  God  will  finish  what  He  has  begun  ; 
If  you  will  keep  tlie  incense  burning  there 
His  glory  shall  be  seen,  sometime,  somewhere.^* 

Upon  prayer  as  a  spiritual  force  the  Church 
has  to  depend  in  her  mighty  task  of  world-con- 


96     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

quest.     It  was  when  she  was  upon  her  knees 
that  the  Spirit  descended  upon  her  at  Pente- 
cost ;  and  ever  since  it  has  been  when  she  has 
been  in  that  attitude  that  she  has  received  fresh 
enduements  of  power  to  fit  her  for  the  task  to 
which  she  has  been  called.     It  will  be  a  sad 
day  for  her  when  she  gives  to  prayer  a  second- 
ary place,  and  is  willing  to  accept  any  substi- 
tute whatever  for  it.     When  the  Lord  has  to 
say,   "  My  house  shall  be  called  a  house  of 
prayer,  but  ye  have  made  it  a  social  club,  or 
an  ecclesiastical  show,"   her    glory    and    her 
power  have  departed.     It  is  as  "  a  house  of 
prayer  "  that  the  Church  is  to  be  known.     It 
is  when  she  has  renounced  all  outward  sources 
of  help,  and  has  fallen  back  upon  God  alone, 
that  in  her  weakness  she  is  made  strong.     It  is 
when  she  has  foregone  the  cheap  and  easy 
victories  of  the  passing  hour,  and  has  travelled 
with  her  divine  Lord  along  the  way  of  humili- 
ation, that  she  comes  to  the  throne  of  power. 
The  danger  of  to-day,  when  the  calls  to  social 
service  are  loud  and  so  insistent,  is  that  by 
keeping  her  ear  close  to  the  ground  to  hear  the 
movements  of  human  life  she  may  fail  to  hear 
"  the  sound  of  marching  in  the  tops  of  the  mul- 
berry trees  " — those  mystical  movements  of  the 
divine  presence  that  presage  the  coming  of  the 
day  of    power.     In  the  darkest  hour,   when 
mighty  political,  social,  and  industrial  upheavals 


A  Spiritual  Force  97 

are  shaking  terribly  the  earth,  and  the  hearts 
of  men  are  failing  them  for  fear,  there  comes 
to  her  the  call,  ^'  Look  up,  for  your  redemp- 
tion draweth  nigh."  Through  every  change 
God  is  working  out  Ilis  purpose  of  redemp- 
tion in  the  world ;  and  of  all  that  we  can  do 
to  hasten  on  its  consummation,  there  is  noth- 
ing that  can,  for  a  moment,  be  compared  in 
value  with  our  faith-filled  prayers. 


XIII 

Prayer  in  Relation  to  Natural 
Phenomena 

PKAYEE  is  a  spiritual  force  in  the  spir- 
itual world,  from  which  it  descends  into 
the  natural  world.  Professor  William 
James  defines  it  as  "  a  process  wherein  work  is 
really  done,  and  spiritual  energy  flows  in  and 
produces  effects  psychological  or  material  in 
the  phenomenal  world."  There  are  many, 
however,  who  maintain  that  there  is  no  place 
whatever  for  prayer  in  the  phenomenal  world, 
and  they  are  ready  to  agree  with  James  Thom- 
son, the  poet,  that 

*^  The  world  rolls  on  forever  like  a  mill. 
We  grind  out  life  and  death,  and  good  and  ill ; 
It  has  no  purpose,  heart,  or  word,  or  will." 

Others  who  would  shrink  from  such  a  harsh 
view  of  the  universe  rule  out  prayer  just  as 
effectually  by  substituting  "  an  unregarding 
law  "  for  a  paternal  personality.  But  unless 
there  is  a  living,  loving  Power  behind  all  nat- 
ural phenomena,  prayer  for  the  things  which 
98 


Relation  to  Natural  Phenomena       99 

we  have  been  wont  to  regard  as  coming  within 
the  sphere  of  divine  providence  is  utter  folly. 
Very  different  is  the  view  of  those  who  with 
Sir  Oliver  Lodge  regard  prayer  as  "  pressing 
through  the  husk,  and  apparently  sensuous 
covering  of  the  universe,  and  touching  some- 
thing living,  loving,  and  helpful  beyond."  This 
is  the  Christian  view,  the  view  which  Christ 
had,  and  which  He  has  bequeathed  to  us.  To 
catch  this  view  is  to  discover  a  purpose  in  na- 
ture ;  for  a  world  with  a  God  in  it  is  a  world 
with  a  purpose.  "  It  is  a  world  that  exists,"  as 
Bishop  Francis  J.  McConnell  has  so  woll  said, 
"  for  the  service  of  persons  whose  individual 
souls  are  the  supreme  earthly  objects  of  God's 
regard."  And  he  adds,  "  The  earth  itself  is  but 
a  material  instrument  for  the  help  of  souls." 

The  laws  that  govern  the  movements  of  God 
in  the  world  are  not  always  within  our  ken. 
At  best  we  know  only  in  part ;  but  enough  has 
been  authenticated  by  experience  to  confirm 
faith  in  the  eiRcacy  of  prayer  as  one  of  the 
forces  by  which  God  works  in  the  natural  world 
for  the  accomplishment  of  His  purposes  of  grace 
in  the  lives  of  His  children. 

One  of  the  most  familiar  tests  of  the  power 
of  prayer  in  the  realm  of  nature  is  furnished  by 
prayer  for  rain.  A  few  years  ago,  when  there 
was  a  severe  drought  in  Kansas,  there  came  an 
urgent  request  to  the  governor  from  all  over 


lOO     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

the  state  that  he  would  appoint  a  day  for  prayer 
for  rain.  This  he  refused  to  do,  saying,  "  I  be- 
lieve in  the  efficacy  of  prayer,  but  not  in  the 
case  of  flood  or  drought."  This  attitude,  which 
is  a  very  common  one,  comes  from  a  mistaken 
idea  as  to  the  nature  and  end  of  prayer.  Prayer 
for  rain  is  not  a  sort  of  incantation  such  as  is 
practiced  by  African  rain-makers.  Whether 
rain  will  immediately  follow  it  or  not  depends 
upon  what  God  thinks  and  wills  about  the 
matter.  He  is  not  running  this  world  in  the 
interest  of  big  crops,  but  for  the  growing  of 
big  souls.  In  His  scheme  of  things  the  ma- 
terial is  always  subordinated  to  the  spiritual. 
Besides,  our  little  patch  of  ground  is  not  all 
that  God  has  to  care  for.  He  has  to  consider 
the  interests  of  others,  and  has  to  relate  all  He 
does  for  us  to  the  whole  cosmic  process. 

A  pious  mother  had  two  sons,  one  a  gardener, 
the  other  a  potter.  Said  the  gardener,  "O 
mother,  pray  God  for  rain  to  water  my  plants." 
Said  the  potter,  "  O  mother,  pray  God  for  sun- 
shine to  dry  my  pots."  What  could  the  per- 
plexed mother  do  but  leave  the  whole  matter 
in  the  hands  of  the  All-Wise  ? 

But  if  God's  laws  are  fixed  what  is  the  use  of 
praying  at  all  ?  We  answer.  They  are  not  fixed 
in  the  sense  that  they  are  unalterable.  They  are 
not  fetters  by  which  He  is  bound,  but  methods 
by  which  He  works.    What  we  call  the  laws 


Relation  to  Natural  Phenomena      loi 

of  nature  are  simply  the  observed  sequences  of 
events,  which  show  Him  to  be  a  God  of  order. 
Strictly  speaking,  His  laws  are  not  entities,  but 
are  merely  the  expressions  of  His  mind  and 
will,  and  may  be  changed  or  modified  by  Him 
whenever  He  pleases.  It  is  inconceivable  that 
He  should  be  limited  in  any  way  by  the  thing 
which  He  has  created.  God  is  free,  and  the 
universe  He  has  made  is  all  open  to  Him,  so 
that  He  can  shape  and  control  it  according  to 
the  purpose  of  His  sovereign  will.  All  power 
is  His.  He  has  resources  of  which  we  little 
dream ;  hence  He  can  do  unheard-of  things — 
things  before  which  we  stand  in  wonder  and 
awe. 

^*  Lo,  these  are  but  the  outskirts 
Of  His  ways ; 
And  how  small  a  whisper  do 

We  hear  of  Him  ? 
But  the  thunder  of  His  power 
Who  can  understand  ?  " 

(Job  XX vi.  14.) 

Furthermore,  as  the  All- Wise  He  knows  every 
combination  of  circumstances,  and  can  unlock 
every  difficulty  in  our  lives.  On  the  ground 
of  the  new  condition  w^hich  prayer  introduces 
He  can  materially  alter  the  course  of  events  so 
that  disaster  may  be  averted,  and  the  things 
that  were  working  for  ruin  may  become  bless- 


102     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

ings  unspeakable.  It  is  always  to  be  assumed 
that  God  knows  what  is  best  for  one,  and  for 
all ;  but  how  He  will  act  in  any  given  case  it  is 
never  safe  to  forecast.  His  ways  are  not  al- 
ways our  ways.  Hence  as  Thomas  Goodwin, 
the  English  Puritan,  remarks,  *'  He  sometimes 
claims  and  exercises  both  a  great  latitude  and 
a  great  longitude  in  the  way  of  answering  His 
people's  prayers." 

^^  God  answers  prayer.     Sometimes  when 

hearts  are  weak 
He  gives  the  very  gifts  believers  seek, 
But  often  faith  must  learn  a  deeper  rest, 
And  trust  God's  silence  when  He  does 

not  speak ; 
For  He,  whose  name  is  Love,  will  send 

the  best." 

When  we  desire  some  temporal  good  it  is 
therefore  always  wise  to  wait  for  intimation  of 
God's  will  before  proffering  our  request.  It  is 
said  of  George  Miiller  that  before  making  some 
new  project  the  subject  of  definite  prayer  he 
often  spent  days  and  months  brooding  over  it 
to  find  out  whether  it  was  in  accordance  with 
the  divine  mind.  In  the  case  of  Elijah  it  is 
said  that  he  prayed  "  according  to  the  word  of 
the  Lord,"  some  intimation  evidently  having 
been  given  him  that  a  protracted  season  of 
drought  was  in  God's  plan.     Elijah's  prayer 


Relation  to  Natural  Phenomena     103 

thus  coinciding  with  God's  purpose  could  not 
possibly  miscarry. 

Sometimes  prayer  is  held  back,  and  we  simply 
cannot  pray  for  a  certain  thing  which  we  greatly 
desire.  At  other  times  we  are  drawn  out  in 
prayer,  and  cannot  stop  praying.  In  this  way 
God  often  leads  us  to  know  the  prayers  He 
means  to  answer.  But  at  the  end  we  must 
leave  all  to  Him,  and  not  feel  that  He  must 
grant  the  particular  thing  we  ask,  and  no  other. 
For  what  are  we  that  we  should  seek  to  shut 
Him  up  to  our  idea  of  what  He  ought  to  do  ? 

If  every  outward  sign  should  fail;  if  the 
calamity  we  dread  should  come ;  if  the  rain 
should  not  fall,  and  our  fields  should  be  barren ; 
if  earthquake,  famine,  or  pestilence  should  come 
involving  us  in  utter  ruin,  what  are  we  to  do  ? 
What  can  we  do  but  make  the  Everlasting  God 
our  refuge  ?  believing  that  in  some  way  we  do 
not  understand  all  these  things  will  be  taken 
up  into  the  eternal  plan,  and  be  made  to  work 
together  for  our  individual  weal,  and  for  the 
weal  of  the  world. 

Prayer  assumes  a  special  providence ;  it  as- 
sumes that  God's  care  extends  over  every  de- 
partment of  human  life,  and  that  He  is  con- 
cerned with  individual  as  well  as  general  well- 
being.  Limit  the  area  of  God's  providence  and 
you  limit  the  area  of  prayer.  Let  it  be  held 
that  anything  whatsoever  in  the  lives  of  God's 


104     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

children  is  outside  of  His  providence,  and  the 
great  volume  of  prayer  daily  offered  up  for 
divine  help  by  those  confronted  by  difficulties 
they  cannot  meet,  and  by  disasters  they  cannot 
avert,  is  rendered  foolish  and  futile.  Most 
people  pray  because  they  believe  that  somehow 
their  prayer  has  in  it  power  to  effect  changes  in 
the  sphere  of  things  within  which  prayer 
operates. 

And  just  as  prayer  assumes  special  provi- 
dence, special  providence  assumes  the  possibil- 
ity of  miracle ;  that  is  to  say,  it  assumes  that 
God  is  so  deeply  concerned  about  His  children 
that  under  certain  circumstances  He  is  pre- 
pared, in  answer  to  their  prayers,  to  do  un- 
wonted things  for  them  ;  and  these  unwonted 
things  wrought  on  their  behalf — which  men 
call  miracles,  are,  like  the  miracles  of  Jesus, 
evidences  of  divine  grace  just  as  much  as  they 
are  evidences  of  divine  power.  The  life  of 
every  praying  man  is  so  full  of  instances  of 
divine  intervention  that  miracles  become  com- 
monplaces in  his  experience.  Things  are  con- 
stantly happening  to  him  which  cannot  be  ex- 
plained on  any  other  ground  than  that  God  has 
altered  and  arranged  things  for  his  benefit. 
His  whole  life  is  a  chain  of  miracles  ;  yea,  it  is 
one  continuous  miracle. 

His  faith,  however,  does  not  depend  upon 
signs  and  wonders.     If  they  come  he  is  glad ;  if 


Relation  to  Natural  Phenomena     loj* 

they  are  withheld  he  is  satisfied.  Whether 
prayer  is  answered  in  ordinary  or  in  extra- 
ordinary ways  matters  not.  The  important 
thing  for  him  is  to  discern  the  answer  when  it 
comes,  and  to  accept  it  as  from  Ilim. 


XIY 
Prayer  as  Related  to  Bodily  Healing 

THE  Church  of  to-day  is  being  shorn 
largely  of  her  power  because  she  is 
not  exercising  her  healing  ministry. 
Christ's  work  consisted  of  teaching  and  heal- 
ing ;  ours  consists  of  teaching  alone.  The  new 
religious  cults,  such  as  Christian  Science  and 
'New  Thought,  derive  much  of  their  influence 
from  attempting  to  do  what  the  Church  has 
neglected.  Ninety  per  cent,  of  those  who  join 
themselves  to  them  are  attracted  by  the  promise 
held  out  of  receiving  physical  benefit.  After- 
wards they  struggle  to  understand  and  accept 
the  explanation  that  is  offered  them  as  to  the 
source  of  these  benefits.  Having  secured  the 
loaves  and  the  fishes,  they  are  ready  to  receive 
the  things  of  the  spirit. 

The  Church  cannot  allow  this  neglect  of  her 
healing  ministry  to  continue.  All  things  are 
hers.  All  power  has  been  given  to  her  to 
fulfill  this  part  of  her  great  commission.  She 
ought  therefore  to  lay  hands  upon  the  sick, 
praying  for  them  in  confidence  that  the  Lord 
106 


Prayer  and  Bodily  Healing         107 

will  actually  confer  healing  power  upon  them 
in  answer  to  her  prayer. 

Prayer  has  a  therapeutic  value  in  itself.  It 
quiets,  soothes,  and  comforts,  as  nothing  else 
can.  As  an  exercise  of  faith  it  brings  all  man- 
ner of  uplifting  influences  into  the  soul.  But  it 
does  more ;  it  connects  the  soul  directly  with 
the  source  of  life,  so  that  fullness  of  blessing  is 
received  for  the  perfecting  of  the  whole  man. 

Of  the  blessings  which  prayer  brings  no  one 
has  a  monopoly.  With  the  divine  healing 
energy  flowing  through  the  world  any  one  can 
connect.  The  fountain  of  life  is  open  to  all ; 
and  to  no  one  is  given  the  exclusive  right  to 
dispense  its  waters  in  bottles  which  have  a  par- 
ticular label  affixed  to  them.  The  life-giving, 
health-giving  power  of  God  is  free  to  all  alike, 
and  it  is  as  available  as  it  is  free.  The  Church 
is  an  appointed  channel  through  which  it  flows, 
but  not  the  only  one.  So  anxious  is  God  to  im- 
part it  that  He  will  respond  to  any  one  who 
opens  himself  to  Him,  and  who  out  of  the  deep- 
est darkness  of  ignorance  and  superstition  calls 
upon  His  name. 

The  healing  power  of  God  is  ever  in  exercise. 
To  every  sufferer  Christ  still  comes  : 

*'  The  healiug  of  His  seamless  dress 
Is  by  our  beds  of  pain  ; 
We  touch  Him  in  life's  throng  and  press, 
And  we  are  whole  ajf.  in. '' 


lo8     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

To  tell  men  of  this  precious,  unseen,  and  mighty 
Healer  is  the  mission  of  the  Church. 

Care  however  must  be  observed  in  defining 
the  area  within  which  prayer  for  the  recovery 
from  sickness  is  found  to  be  effective.  ISTot  all 
who  pray  for  their  own  recovery  are  healed ; 
and  not  all  who  pray  for  the  recovery  of  others 
have  their  prayers  answered.  When  recovery 
is  sought  for  selfish  ends,  or  when  no  guarantee 
is  given  that  the  restored  life  will  be  devoted 
to  useful  ends,  prayer  will  be  unavailing.  God 
always  subordinates  physical  to  spiritual  in- 
terests. He  is  more  concerned  about  our  souls 
than  about  our  bodies ;  about  our  character 
than  about  our  comfort ;  about  our  holiness 
than  about  our  health ;  and  He  will  at  any 
time  sacrifice  our  physical  to  our  spiritual  wel- 
fare. He  may  not  consider  it  advantageous  to 
prolong  an  unprofitable  life,  and  He  may  have 
better  use  to  make,  in  some  other  world,  of  a 
profitable  life.  He  may  also  be  saving  us  from 
sorrow  unspeakable  by  refusing  to  lengthen  out 
a  wasted  life.  When  He  denies,  it  is  from  love. 
Sickness  being  an  evil  it  is  natural  for  us  to 
ask  Him  to  remove  it ;  but  we  must  beware  of 
dictating  to  Him,  and  are  to  leave  every  case 
to  His  disposal,  seeking  to  adjust  ourselves  to 
His  will  instead  of  seeking  to  change  it.  ]N'or 
must  we  test  the  validity  of  prayer  by  the 
answer  given  to  any  particular  request;  for 


Prayer  and  Bodily  Healing  109 

whether  God  removes  sickness,  or  allows  it  to 
remain  and  to  run  to  its  fatal  end,  we  are  to 
believe  that  He  always  does  what  is  best,  and 
are  to  sweetly  rest  in  "  His  good,  and  accept- 
able, and  perfect  will.'' 

The  fact  that  God  can  and  does  heal  when 
He  sees  fit  is  the  main  thing  to  be  grasped. 
The  way  in  which  He  heals  is  of  secondary 
importance.  Wisely  to  cooperate  with  Him  it 
is  necessary,  however,  that  we  understand  in 
some  measure  the  method  of  His  working. 
Something  is  to  be  learned  from  human  anal- 
ogy. In  his  well-known  book  on  "  The  Law  of 
Psychic  Phenomena  "  Dr.  Thomas  Jay  Hudson 
finds  the  key  to  the  solution  of  the  problem 
touching  the  healing  of  disease  in  the  law  of 
suggestion.  He  endeavours  to  show  that  that 
law  underlies  and  explains  all  the  great  healing 
movements  outside  the  Church,  and  within  it. 
In  a  measure  it  does ;  but  the  explanation 
which  it  gives,  although  true  as  far  as  it  goes, 
is  only  partial.  It  leaves  out  of  account  the 
direct  touch  of  man  upon  the  Divine  Healer 
through  the  exercise  of  faith.  JSTow  prayer 
moves  along  all  these  lines.  It  has  suggestive 
power  ;  it  works  with  God  at  the  center  of 
man's  being,  and  it  awakens  within  man  im- 
pulses which  push  him  forward  until  he  stands 
face  to  face  with  Him  who  is  always  "present 
to  heal,"  and  leaves  him  in  His  hands. 


110     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

The  power  to  heal  which  belongs  to  prayer 
ought  to  be  claimed  and  declared  by  the  Church 
of  to-day.  It  ought  to  be  made  a  distinctive 
element  in  her  witness  to  the  Lord's  presence. 
Her  prayer  meetings  ought  to  be  "  testimonial 
meetings,"  at  which  those  who  have  been  sick 
in  body  and  in  soul  shall  bear  witness  to  the 
healing,  restoring  power  of  the  Living  Christ. 
When  that  testimony  is  given  the  Church  will 
have  a  new  Pentecost. 


XV 

Prayer  as  Related  to  War 

WHEN  the  tocsin  of  war  is  sounded  a 
nation  falls  instinctively  upon  its 
knees,  praying  to  the  Mighty  God 
in  whose  hands  are  the  destinies  of  men.  It 
makes  its  appeal  to  divine  justice,  believing  as 
it  prepares  for  battle  that  the  arbitrament  of 
the  sword  will  prove  to  be  the  arbitrament  of 
God. 

But  here  is  the  difficulty.  The  contending 
nations  are  equally  convinced  of  the  justice  of 
their  cause.  They  pray  to  the  same  God,  and 
confidently  count  on  His  exclusive  assistance. 
It  never  seems  to  occur  to  them  that  the  one  to 
whom  they  make  their  appeal  is  not  their  God 
only,  but  that  He  is  also  the  God  of  those  who 
are  fighting  on  the  other  side.  Their  attitude 
plainly  shows  that  they  are  still  enmeshed  in 
the  old  conception  of  God  as  a  tribal  divinity 
— a  conception  which  the  Christian  world  is 
generally  supposed  to  have  outgrown. 

Is  there  anything  to  determine  which  prayer 
will  be  answered  ?    There  is.     The  prayer  that 
111 


112     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

will  be  answered  is  the  one  which  is  offered  in 
the  right  spirit,  and  which  seeks  the  right  end. 
All  other  prayers  will  fall  to  the  ground. 

War  is  a  great  revealer.  It  brings  to  light 
the  thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart.  It  also 
gives  a  vent  to  pent-up  fires.  If  it  does  not 
make  men  cruel  it  affords  an  occasion  for  re- 
vealing their  cruelty  ;  if  it  does  not  create  the 
tigerish  lust  for  blood  it  awakens  it ;  if  it  does 
not  make  men  unforgiving  it  discloses  their  un- 
forgiving spirit.  When  hate  is  exalted  as  "  a 
sacred  duty,"  and  the  demand  of  Christ  that 
we  love  our  enemies  is  characterized  as  "  more 
impossible  than  ever  for  normal  humanity,"  a 
descent  has  been  taken  into  an  inferno  so  deep 
that  there  can  be  no  return  from  it  save  up  a 
long  and  steep  ascent,  upon  bleeding,  penitential 
knees.  If  hate  is  harboured  in  the  heart  prayer 
is  nullified.  'No  prayer  prevails  but  the  prayer 
of  love. 

When  the  die  is  cast,  and  the  soldiers,  having 
been  mustered  from  every  town  and  hamlet, 
fare  forth  to  battle — some  light-heartedly, 
others  sobered  by  the  haunting  fear  of  impend- 
ing evil,  all,  or  almost  all  of  them  are  followed 
by  the  prayers  of  loved  ones  left  behind.  From 
thousands  of  mothers'  hearts  rises  the  cry,  "  O 
God,  protect  my  boy,  and  bring  him  safely 
back."  And  the  cry  perhaps  has  hardly  died 
away  before  he  has  to  face  the  iron  rain  which 


Prayer  and  War  113 

crushes  him  to  his  doom.  Describing  this  ex- 
perience under  another  form  Tennyson  pathet- 
ically exclaims  : 

"  O  Mother,  praying  God  will  save 

Thy  sailor, — while  thy  beart  is  bow'd 
His  heavy-shotted  ham  mock -sbroud 
Drops  in  his  vast  and  wandering  grave." 

What  a  severe  strain  such  an  experience  puts 
upon  Christian  faith  !  No  adequate  explana- 
tion of  it  can  be  given.  The  mj^stery  of  it  is 
too  deep  for  the  little  sounding  line  of  human 
knowledge  to  bottom.  Part  of  its  bitterness 
comes  from  its  unexpectedness  ;  and  the  shock 
of  its  unexpectedness  often  arises  from  forget- 
ting that  prayer  for  the  protection  of  the  loved 
ones  should  never  ignore  the  possibility  of  their 
not  returning.  The  supreme  sacrifice  must 
needs  be  required  of  many ;  may  be  required  of 
them.  In  rare  instances,  for  reasons  of  His  own, 
God  may  intervene,  staying  the  hand  of  the 
enemy,  or  covering  the  defenseless  head  with 
the  shadow  of  His  wing ;  but  usually  He  allows 
the  stroke  to  fall ;  and  when  it  falls,  if  the 
stunned  and  bewildered  soul  cannot  at  once  kiss 
the  rod,  he  can  at  least  trust  God  in  the  dark, 
and  sink  into  His  everlasting  arms. 

A  still  greater  strain  is  put  upon  Christian 
faith  when  those  w^ho  have  been  suddenly  cut 
down  have  given  no  outward  evidence  of  prep- 


114     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

aration  for  the  great  change.  Many,  not 
satisfied  to  rest  in  the  assurance  that  they  are 
in  the  hands  of  Him  whose  mercy  endureth  for- 
ever, indulge  in  the  hope  that  the  sacrifice  of 
hfe  in  a  noble  cause,  having  in  it  something  of 
the  spirit  of  Calvary,  may  be  counted  for  salva- 
tion, as  faith  is  counted  for  righteousness. 
Such  was  the  belief  of  John  Hay,  the  Christian 
statesman,  as  expressed  in  his  lines  concerning 
Jim  Bludso,  the  engineer  of  the  Prairie  Belly 
who  when  his  boat  caught  fire : 

*^  Held  her  nozzle  agin  the  bank 
Till  the  last  soul  got  ashore," 

and  perished  in  the  flames. 

*^  He  seen  his  duty,  a  dead-sure  thing  — 
And  he  went  for  it  thar  and  then, 
And  Christ  ain't  a-going  to  be  too  hard 
On  a  man  who  died  for  men." 

That  the  judgment  will  be  conducted  by 
Christ  is  in  itself  significant.  It  means  that  as 
the  Son  of  man,  who  understands  men.  He  will 
take  every  extenuating  circumstance  into  ac- 
count, and  that  His  judgments,  while  according 
to  justice,  will  also  be  according  to  grace. 

Besides,  God  is  not  through  with  any  one 
when  he  leaves  this  earthly  sphere ;  but  those 
who  pray  for  the  salvation  of  their  loved  ones 


Prayer  and  War  115 

may  have  a  long  time  to  wait,  for  it  may  take 
God  a  long  time  to  bring  the  answer  round. 
But  one  thing  is  sure  :  no  prayer  offered  up  for 
the  welfare  of  another  soul  is  vain.  "  The 
golden  censers  full  of  odours,  which  are  the 
prayers  of  saints,"  do  not  represent  prayers  held 
in  remembrance,  but  the  prayers  which  still  rise 
before  the  eternal  throne  as  grateful  incense — 
prayers  that  are  still  living  and  active,  and  are 
on  the  way  to  fulfillment. 

As  the  conflict  goes  on  there  rises  prayer  for 
victory.  This  is  often  offered  up  in  a  spirit  of 
utter  selfishness.  National  glory  and  aggran- 
dizement are  sought  rather  than  victory  for  the 
right.  Seldom  is  the  high  altitude  attained 
which  marked  the  attitude  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
who,  when  a  deputation  of  preachers  waited 
upon  him  during  the  Civil  War,  asking  him  to 
appoint  a  day  when  the  people  should  assemble 
together  to  implore  God  to  be  on  the  side  of  the 
North,  made  reply,  "  Gentlemen,  do  you  not 
think  it  would  be  more  becoming  for  us  to  see 
that  we  are  on  God's  side  than  to  ask  Him  to  be 
on  our  side  ?  "  A  profound  utterance,  and  one 
that  goes  to  the  core  of  the  question.  The 
desire  to  be  on  God's  side  assumes  that  the 
mind  will  be  kept  open  to  His  suggestions,  and 
the  will  plastic  to  His  touch.  It  assumes  also 
that  the  possibility  of  being  in  error  will  be 
frankly  acknowledged,  and  that  there  will  be  a 


Il6     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

readiness  to  accept  His  plan,  even  if  our  own 
should  have  to  be  shattered.  To  occupy  this 
attitude  is  to  be  freed  forever  from  all  torturing 
anxieties  touching  the  future,  and  to  be  enabled 
to  wait  with  tranquillity  whatever  of  good  or 
ill  the  future  may  have  in  store. 

But  more  insistent  than  the  prayer  for  victory 
should  be  the  prayer  for  peace.  Not,  however, 
for  peace  at  any  price  ;  not  for  peace  by  com- 
promise, but  for  peace  by  righteousness.  There 
are  worse  things  than  war,  and  a  dishonourable 
peace  is  one  of  them.  A  righteous  and  honour- 
able peace  is  the  only  kind  for  which  God  cares, 
and  for  which  a  Christian  has  a  right  to  pray. 
Such  a  peace  is  not  a  mere  cessation  of  hostili- 
ties, but  the  destruction  of  the  evil  spirit  from 
which  war  springs  ;  and  that  is  the  only  kind 
that  is  lasting.  Any  other  kind  will  prove  to 
be  merely  a  pause  in  which  preparation  is  made 
for  a  more  deadly  struggle. 

Those  who  sincerely  pray  for  peace  will  do 
everything  possible  to  bring  it  about.  They 
will  put  aside  all  jealousy,  envy,  rivalry,  hatred, 
and  suspicion  ;  they  will  go  more  than  half-way 
in  making  concessions  ;  they  will  take  their  full 
share  of  blame  for  allowing  evils  to  go  on  un- 
checked ;  they  will  seek  to  redress  any  wrong 
which  they  may  have  unintentionally  com- 
mitted. In  a  word,  they  will  embrace  every 
opportunity  offered  of   answering  their  own 


Prayer  and  War  1 1 7 

prayers.  But  if  the  power  to  promote  peace 
be  so  much  in  our  own  hands,  why  pray  about 
it  ?  For  sundry  reasons.  And  first,  because 
prayer  creates  an  atmosphere  in  which  the  war- 
spirit  will  wither  and  die.  In  the  next  place, 
because  of  its  direct  action  upon  belligerent  hu- 
man hearts,  inducing  them  to  sheathe  their 
swords,  and  live  in  amity  with  those  they  have 
looked  upon  as  enemies.  Every  desire  for 
peace  outbreathed  in  prayer  enters  into  the 
world's  life,  and  forms  part  of  the  sum  total  of 
influence  by  which  the  reign  of  righteous  peace 
is  to  be  established.  It  is  also  something 
through  which  God  can  work  for  the  bring- 
ing in  of  that  harmonious  social  order  which  is 
the  end  for  which  He  is  unceasingly  working 
in  the  world. 

The  very  act  of  prayer  is  in  itself  a  means  of 
promoting  peace.  It  brings  men  together,  and 
knits  them  into  one.  Let  warring  nations 
gather  around  the  throne  of  grace  as  chil- 
dren of  a  common  Father,  and  some  way  will 
be  found  for  the  amicable  settlement  of  every 
international  dispute. 

Never  does  prayer  more  evidently  flow  into 
the  stream  of  the  divine  purpose  than  when  it 
expresses  the  longing  and  the  hope  for  the  end 
of  war.  Unless  the  vision  of  the  prophets  be 
delusive,  war  is  one  of  the  things  that  must 
pass  away ;  and  sooner  than  we  dream  we  may 


1 1 8     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

hear  "  the  bugles  sound  the  truce  of  God  to  the 
whole  world  forever."  But  peace  when  it 
comes  will  not  be  secure  unless  the  spirit 
prevails  which  prayer  evokes.  Treaties  will 
be  held  inviolate  only  when  the  heart  is  true. 
No  international  police  force  will  preserve  the 
world's  peace  unless  the  hearts  of  men  are  emp- 
tied of  hate  and  filled  with  love.  IS'ot  by  the 
application  of  external  force  in  any  form,  but 
by  the  conquest  of  the  universal  heart  by  love 
will  universal  peace  be  won  and  kept. 

It  has  been  said  that  so  long  as  there  are  two 
people  left  in  the  world  there  will  be  the  possi- 
bility of  a  conflict.  ]S"ot  if  their  hearts  have 
been  changed  by  the  power  of  love  divine. 
But  if  the  hell-fires  within  them  instead  of 
being  extinguished  have  been  merely  banked 
they  may  blaze  up  at  any  moment.  Without 
such  a  change  of  nature — a  change  so  radical 
as  to  realize  the  prophet's  vision  of  the  lion 
lying  down  with  the  lamb — our  hope  for  the 
world's  redemption  is  vain,  and  our  prayer  for 
it  is  also  vain.  But  holding  to  its  possibility 
we  repudiate  the  sentiment  of  Kipling's  lines : 

"  Oh,  East  is  East,  and  West  is  West,  and  never 
the  twain  shall  meet. 
Till  Earth  and  Sky  stand  presently  at  God's 
great  Judgment  Seat," 

and  would  substitute  for  them : 


Prayer  and  War  119 

**  Yes,  East  is  East  and  West  is  West,  yet  some 
time  the  twain  sliall  meet. 
When  brothers  all,  in  love  they  bow,  before 
Heaven's  Mercy  Seat.'' 

But  so  long  as  human  nature  is  what  it  is,  so 
long  as  its  selfish,  willful  impulses  have  not 
been  brought  into  subjection  to  the  divine  will, 
wars  may  arise  at  any  moment.  Hence  the 
need  of  some  measure  of  defensive  preparation. 
Yes,  after  all,  the  chief  defence  of  a  nation  is 
that  which  is  spiritual  and  invincible.  "  Sal- 
vation will  God  appoint  for  walls  and  bul- 
warks." Kipling  at  his  best  teaches  us  to 
pray: 

*^  For  heathen  heart  that  puts  her  trust 
In  reeking  tube  and  iron  shard — 
All  valiant  dust  that  builds  on  dust, 

And  guarding  calls  not  Thee  to  guard. 
For  frantic  boast  and  foolish  word. 
Have  mercy  on  Thy  people.  Lord. " 

Mary  Queen  of  Scots  feared  the  prayers  of 
John  Knox  more  than  all  the  armies  of  Eu- 
rope. And  in  these  days  why  should  not  the 
effectual,  fervent  prayer  of  a  righteous  man 
have  more  protective  power  than  a  super- 
dreadnaught?  Woe  to  the  nation  that  fails 
to  rely  on  prayer  as  one  of  the  forces  by  which 
its  future  security  is  to  be  maintained.  A 
prayerless    nation   by  cutting  itself  off  from 


1 20     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

God  is  left  to  itself,  and  becomes  shorn  of  its 
power.  No  nation  is  strong  save  in  alliance 
with  God.  "  Except  the  Lord  keep  the  city, 
the  watchman  waketh  but  in  vain ; "  and  ex- 
cept the  Lord  guard  a  country  its  mighty  fleets 
and  armies  will  avail  nothing.  "  There  is  no 
king  saved  by  the  multitude  of  a  host."  God 
alone  is  a  nation's  sure  defence. 


XYI 
Prayer  in  Theory  and  Practice 

ANEW  philosophy  of  prayer  will  be  of 
little  value  if  taken  as  a  substitute  for 
an  improved  prayer  life.  We  may 
have  a  better  understanding  of  prayer  than  our 
fathers,  and  yet  be  poorer  pray-ers  than  they. 
We  may  have  more  enlightenment  and  less 
faith  ;  a  better  conception  of  God  and  less  of 
the  spirit  of  true  devotion.  If  we  know  the 
more  excellent  way  happy  are  we  if  we  walk 
in  it. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  when  the  disciples 
came  to  Jesus  saying,  "  Lord,  teach  us  to 
pray,"  they  did  not  ask  to  be  instructed  in 
the  theory  of  prayer  but  in  its  practice.  They 
were  already  praying  men — like  Daniel,  and 
all  good  Jews,  they  no  doubt  prayed  three 
times  a  day.  But  they  were  not  satisfied  with 
their  prayer  life.  They  wanted  to  pray  better. 
They  knew  that  Jesus  had  some  secret  which 
they  did  not  possess.  They  wanted  to  know  it 
that  they  might  be  able  to  pray  in  His  way. 

Prayer  is  an  art  that  can  be  attained  only 
121 


122     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

by  practice.  "We  have,"  as  Mrs.  Elizabeth 
Prentiss  has  said,  "  to  learn  the  mysterious  art 
of  prayer  as  an  apprenticeship  at  the  throne  of 
grace."  No  one  ought  to  expect  to  reach  the 
high  places  of  divine  communion  at  a  single 
bound.  He  must  begin  at  the  bottom,  which 
is  generally  at  a  mother's  knee,  and  patiently 
ascend  step  by  step  until  he  has  reached  the 
sun-lit  heights  where  the  God  of  glory  dwelleth, 
and  where  His  chosen  meet  Him  and  "  speak  to 
Him,  face  to  face  as  a  man  speaketh  to  his 
friend." 

It  is  only,  however,  on  its  formal  side  that 
prayer  is  an  art  to  be  cultivated  by  practice.  On 
its  inner  side  it  grows  as  the  soul  ripens.  Being 
essentially  a  thing  of  the  spirit  it  may  be  strong- 
est under  the  uncouthest  forms.  Its  value  is 
determined  not  by  its  rhetorical  finish,  but  by 
its  spirituality.  The  prayer  of  the  righteous 
man  "  availeth  much  in  its  working,"  although 
it  may  come  from  stammering  lips;  whereas 
the  prayer  of  the  man  who  harbours  sin  in 
his  heart  availeth  nothing  even  if  perfect  in 
technique  and  correct  in  thought.  In  prayer 
character  counts. 

The  connection  between  theory  and  practice 
is  the  same  as  that  between  doctrine  and  duty, 
faith  and  works,  or  that  between  power  and  the 
application  of  power.  To  the  theory  of  prayer 
which  a  man  holds  his  practice  will  sooner  or 


Theory  and  Practice  1 23 

later  conform.  As  a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart 
so  he  prays.  If  his  thoughts  touching  prayer 
change  his  practice  will  change ;  if  his  belief 
iu  prayer  dies  his  prayers  will  cease.  We  see 
this  illustrated  in  the  case  of  the  philosopher 
Nietzsche,  who,  scorning  meekness  as  a  virtue, 
glorifying  brute  force,  casting  down  the  hum- 
ble, dependent  Christian  from  the  eminence  ac- 
corded him  by  the  Master  and  setting  up  in  his 
place  a  "  superman  "  who  has  no  need  of  God, 
saw  no  use  for  prayer.  Yet  he  found  it  painful 
to  give  it  up.  His  lamentation  over  the  neces- 
sity for  its  abandonment  is  inexpressibly  pa- 
thetic. He  says,  "  Nevermore  wilt  thou  pray, 
nevermore  worship,  nevermore  repose  in  bound- 
less trust — thou  renouncest  the  privilege  of 
standing  before  an  ultimate  wisdom,  an  ulti- 
mate mercy,  an  ultimate  power ;  and  unharness- 
ing thy  thoughts  thou  hast  no  content  whatever 
and  friend  for  thy  severe  solitudes — thou  livest 
without  gazing  upon  a  mountain  that  hath  snow 
upon  its  head  and  fire  in  its  heart — there  is  now 
no  redeemer  for  thee,  none  to  promise  a  better 
life — there  is  no  more  reason  in  that  which  hap- 
pens, no  love  in  that  which  shall  happen  to  thee 
— thy  heart  hath  no  resting  place  when  it  need- 
eth  only  to  find,  not  to  seek ;  thou  refuseth  thy 
ultimate  peace,  thou  desirest  the  eternal  recur- 
rence of  war  and  peace ; — man  of  self-denial, 
wilt  thou  deny  thyself  all  this  ?     Whence  wilt 


124     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

thou  gain  the  strength  ?  No  one  ever  had  such 
strength." 

In  striking  contrast  to  the  attitude  of  Nietz- 
sche is  that  of  a  French  socialist  who,  upon 
returning  wounded  from  the  war,  was  heard  to 
say,  "  I  am  going  back  to  the  Church.  Need 
teaches  one  to  pray."  In  both  of  these  cases 
the  connection  is  clear  between  theory  and 
practice. 

In  prayer  as  in  everything  else  it  is  in  prac- 
tice that  we  are  apt  to  come  short.  Prayer  is 
often  short-circuited.  Some  worldly  obstacle 
checks  the  outflow  of  its  energy  ;  the  power  is 
cut  ofi",  and  it  becomes  a  dead  wire.  What  is 
needed  is  to  repair  the  break,  and  complete  the 
circuit.  It  is  not  the  measure  of  knowledge 
possessed  regarding  prayer,  but  the  amount 
which  we  use  that  determines  the  quality  of 
our  praying.  Power  must  be  applied;  the 
truth  must  be  allowed  to  operate ;  theory  and 
practice  must  be  brought  together. 

Paul  speaks  of  those  who  "  hold  the  truth  in 
unrighteousness  "  ;  that  is,  hold  it  in  check ;  do 
not  allow  it  to  act,  in  order  that  they  may  con- 
tinue in  unrighteousness.  In  the  same  way 
many  hold  prayer  in  check.  They  know  better 
than  they  pray.  They  do  not  let  their  souls 
out ;  they  restrain  prayer  before  God  that  they 
may  remain  undisturbed  in  a  worldly  life.  If 
they  allowed  prayer  to  have  its  way  it  would 


Theory  and  Practice  i  25 

work  changes  in  then'  lives  which  they  are  not 
prepared  to  make. 

To  develop  the  prayer-life  two  things  are 
therefore  needed — correct  prayer  thought,  and 
the  application  of  the  knowledge  gained.  It  is 
not  enough  to  see  that  prayer  is  a  psychic  force, 
working  telepathically ;  it  must  be  made  an 
agency  of  practical  usefulness.  By  the  power 
of  strong  volition  helping  influences  must  be 
sent  by  it  to  others.  It  must  be  made  to  radi- 
ate cheer  and  strength,  health  and  peace.  It  is 
not  enough  to  see  it  a  great  moral  force  work- 
ing directly  and  indirectly  through  the  laws 
which  govern  the  transmission  of  moral  influ- 
ences ;  it  must  be  consciously  and  energetically 
used  for  the  accomplishment  of  moral  ends. 
Those  Avho  pray  for  the  spiritual  welfare  of 
others  must  believe  that  something  is  being 
done  in  answer  to  their  prayers.  They  must 
believe  that  every  prayer  they  offer  has  some 
effect  in  securing  the  final  result.  Nor  is  it 
enough  to  see  in  prayer  a  great  social  force, 
working  for  the  Christianizing  of  the  social 
order  ;  it  must  be  definitely  employed  to  send 
into  the  polar  sea  of  human  life  a  warm  gulf 
stream  of  altruism,  which  will  raise  the  moral 
temperature,  and  cause  fruits  and  flowers  to 
grow  where  before  was  icy  desolation. 

But  not  only  must  prayer  release  force  within 
the  soul,  and  send  it  forth  on  its  mission  of  help- 


126     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

fulness ;  it  must  also  bring  power  down  from 
above,  and  by  connecting  God's  fullness  with 
man's  emptiness,  bring  reenforcement  to  human 
weakness,  redress  to  human  wrongs,  repair  to 
human  ruin,  thus  achieving  individual  and  social 
redemption. 


XYH 
Prayer  and  its  Formal  Expression 

IN  describing  Christians  according  to  their 
degrees  of  spiritual  development  George 
Fox  divides  them  into  three  classes,  namely, 
those  who  are  "without  forms,  in  forms,  and 
above  forms."  This  description  applies  in  a 
very  special  sense  to  the  different  stages  at 
which  men  have  arrived  in  the  prayer  life. 

1.  Those  who  with  regard  to  prayer  are 
"  without  forms  "  are  those  w^hose  praying  is 
as  yet  unformed.  It  has  not  begun  to  function. 
It  is  in  the  nebulous  condition  which  char- 
acterized the  earth  in  its  earliest  stage  when  it 
w^as  spoken  of  as  "  without  form  and  void." 
This  class  often  possess  a  goodly  measure  of 
interest  in  what  Nehemiah  calls  "  the  outward 
business  of  the  house  of  God  "  ;  their  lives  are 
often  filled  with  useful  activities,  but  are  empty 
of  anything  like  definite  praying.  Their  souls 
have  not  found  speech.  They  are  God's  dumb 
children.  Occasionally  they  may  be  startled 
into  a  sudden  outcry  after  God  by  the  fear  of 
some  impending  disaster,  or  by  some  shock  of 
trial,  but  they  have  not  got  into  the  habit  of 
127 


1 28     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

daily  prayer.  That  generally  comes  by  a 
process  of  gradual  growth. 

As  a  thing  of  the  spirit  prayer  may  exist  as 
unvoiced  desire,  for  it  is  the  heart  that  prays, 
and  the  lips  only  give  formal  expression  to  that 
which  rises  to  the  surface  from  the  soul's  un- 
fathomable depths.  But  in  the  completed  act 
of  prayer  heart  and  lips  are  united.  At  first 
the  response  to  God  may  be  faint  as  the  an- 
swering pressure  of  the  babe  whom  the  mother 
is  pressing  to  her  breast ;  and  the  soul's  first 
cry  may  be  that  of  "  a  child  crying  in  the  night, 
with  no  language  but  a  cry  ;  "  but  as  the  sense 
of  God's  presence  grows,  and  the  need  of  His 
help  is  increasingly  felt,  the  soul  will  struggle 
for  more  definite  utterance.  And  God  looking 
on  will  thrill  with  joy  when  there  comes  to 
Him  that  for  which  He  has  longingly  waited. 
For  He  wants  to  hear  His  child's  voice,  and  to 
have  intercourse  with  him.  To  every  silent 
child  He  comes,  saying,  "  Wilt  thou  not  from 
this  time  cry  unto  Me,  My  Father?"  No 
greater  joy  can  one  give  Him  than  by  respond- 
ing to  His  call,  and  coming  to  Him  as  a  sup- 
pliant child. 

2.  By  those  who  are  "  in  forms  "  is  meant 
those  who  are  in  bondage  to  forms — those  to 
whom  certain  forms  have  become  a  necessity. 
There  are  many  such — many  who  have  come 
to  need  some  outward  form  on  which  to  lean, 


Formal  Expression  129 

as  a  vine  needs  a  trellis,  or  as  a  person  weak  in 
limb  needs  a  crutch.  It  is  by  no  accident  that 
forms  have  been  so  largely  used.  They  meet  a 
felt  want.  A  great  part  of  the  literature  of 
devotion  has  consisted  in  providing  prayers  in 
which  the  soul  can  find  expression.  In  her 
public  worship  the  Church  has  elaborated 
stately  rituals  in  which  prayers  general  and 
special  have  a  prominent  place.  That  these 
prepared  prayers  have  been  extensively  useful 
goes  without  the  saying.  They  have  given 
direction  to  the  prayer  impulses;  they  have 
also  helped  in  the  cultivation  of  the  prayer 
habit ;  and  habit  is  the  warp  and  woof  of  life, 
the  stuff  out  of  which  religion  is  made.  On 
the  other  hand  the  use  of  set  forms  tends  to 
formalism.  Habits  may  be  so  regular  and 
fixed  as  to  become  mechanical.  Not  prayer- 
forms  alone,  but  forms  of  speech  may  become 
time-worn,  and  by  constant  repetition  may  lose 
their  original  significance.  No  form  is  of  the 
essence  of  truth.  Forms  of  some  kind  are 
necessary,  but  no  particular  form  is.  All  forms 
are  subject  to  change,  and  have  frequently  to 
be  recast  to  suit  existing  conditions  and  needs. 
The  danger  of  becoming  tied  down  to  forms, 
and  thereby  losing  the  naturalness  and  freedom 
that  belong  to  true  prayer,  is  one  against  which 
Scripture  raises  its  voice  of  warnmg.  It  de- 
clares that  the  body  without  the  spirit  is  dead ; 


130     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

that  a  man  may  have  the  form  of  prayer  while 
denying  the  power  thereof.  Neither  the  use 
nor  the  disuse  of  forms  availeth  anything,  but 
a  right  spirit.  The  use  of  forms  is  justified 
only  so  far  as  they  are  helpful  to  the  nourish- 
ment of  the  devotional  life ;  when  they  have 
ceased  to  be  helpful  the  sooner  they  are  thrown 
aside  the  better.  "  If  the  salt  have  lost  its 
savour,  wherewith  shall  it  be  salted?  It  is 
thenceforth  good  for  nothing  but  to  be  cast  out 
and  trodden  under  foot  of  man." 

3.  Those  who  are  "  above  forms  "  are  those 
whose  praying  is  spontaneous  and  free — the 
outbreathing  of  God's  free  spirit.  They  are 
above  forms  in  the  sense  that  they  are  inde- 
pendent of  them.  They  do  not  deny  their  use 
to  others,  and  upon  occasions  they  may  use 
them  themselves,  but  they  do  not  need  them. 
They  do  not  soar  on  borrowed  wings.  They 
speak  to  God  for  themselves,  and  in  their  own 
words. 

An  illustration  of  this  free  and  informal  in- 
tercourse with  God  is  furnished  in  the  case  of 
Dr.  Bushnell,  who  thus  testifies :  "  I  fell  into 
the  habit  of  talking  with  God.  I  talk  myself 
asleep  at  night,  and  open  the  morning  talking 
to  Him."  These  "  bed -prayers,"  as  an  old 
Scotch  divine  calls  them,  are  often  the  best 
part  of  our  praying.  In  them  artificiality  van- 
ishes and  we  become  natural — a  thing  which 


Formal  Expression  131 

God  surely  likes  in  His  children.  For  is  it 
seemly  that  a  child  should  be  formal  and  cere- 
monious when  in  converse  with  his  Father  ? 

This  kind  of  prayer  has  its  dangers  also.  It 
may  lead  to  undue  familiarity,  and  the  absence 
of  becoming  reverence.  To  maintain  a  proper 
spiritual  balance  is  not  easy.  Just  as  the  use 
of  set  forms  is  apt  to  make  a  man  a  formalist, 
so  the  absence  of  forms  of  any  kind  is  apt  to 
cause  the  prayer-spirit  to  vanish  into  thin  air ; 
and  just  as  a  man  may  be  in  bondage  to  a  re- 
ligion of  forms  he  may  be  in  bondage  to  a  re- 
ligion which  is  above  forms.  "Where  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  there  is  liberty  " — liberty 
all  round — liberty  to  discard  or  to  employ 
forms  as  the  spirit  may  prompt,  and  as  the 
need  of  the  hour  may  demand. 


XYIII 
The  Psychology  of  Prayer 

A  STUDY  of  the  psychology  of  prayer 
is  interesting  and  profitable,  inasmuch 
as  it  helps  us  to  trace  the  operation  of 
the  mind  in  prayer,  thus  showing  in  what 
prayer  consists ;  yet  it  is  no  more  necessary 
to  understand  the  psychology  of  prayer  in 
order  to  pray  than  to  understand  the  chemical 
properties  of  food  before  eating  it.  The  im- 
portant thing  is  not  the  modus  operandi  of 
prayer,  but  the  practice  of  it ;  and  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  action  of  the  mind  in  prayer  is 
valuable  only  as  it  leads  to  more  intelligent 
praying.  That  it  may  and  ought  to  lead  to 
that  result  is  a  valid  reason  for  pursuing  the 
study  of  it. 

The  psychology  of  prayer  deals  with  the 
contents  of  consciousness,  and  the  contents  of 
consciousness  furnish  our  most  trustworthy 
source  of  knowledge.  The  knowledge  thus 
acquired  rests  upon  a  firmer  basis  than  our 
knowledge  of  the  external  world.  The  ex- 
ternal world  is  illusive.  All  we  know  about 
it  is  what  we  gather  from  our  five  senses,  and 
132 


The  Psychology  of  Prayer  133 

they  often  trick  us.  What  we  have  in  con- 
sciousness is  first-hand  knowledge.  What  a 
man  knows  of  himself  he  knows  as  he  knows 
nothing  else. 

Considering  the  subject  of  prayer  from  a 
psychological  point  of  view,  what  do  we  find  ? 
We  answer  we  find  that  it  is  : 

1.  A  conscious  act.  It  is  this  even  when 
an  attitude  of  spirit,  it  being  an  attitude  con- 
sciously taken,  a  spirit  consciously  cherished. 
All  that  goes  on  in  the  laboratory  of  the  sub- 
conscious mind  is  only  preparatory  to  prayer  ; 
prayer  itself  is  the  emerging  of  the  so^d  into 
consciousness.  According  to  J.  R.  Illingworth 
prayer  is  "  our  conscious  response  as  free  beings 
to  God's  invitation  ;  the  effort  on  our  part  to 
enter  into  that  intercourse  with  Him  which  He 
on  His  part  desires  us  to  have."  It  is  true  that 
all  God-inspired  impulses  and  desires  find  ex- 
pression in  every  part  of  life,  so  that  the  whole 
life  may  be  said  to  pray.  A  look,  a  sigh,  a  tear, 
are  prayers  ;  and  God  who  reads  the  heart  as 
an  open  book  responds  to  these  mute  appeals. 
When  the  lips  are  dumb  the  soul  may  speak, 
and  its  praying  may  be  as  unceasing  as  breath- 
ing, as  continuous  as  life  itself.  Dr.  R.  C. 
Cabot  forgets  this  when  he  argues  that  "  we 
can  as  reasonably  speak  of  poems  without 
words,  music  without  notes,  landscapes  without 
colouring,  life  without  consciousness,  as  prayer 


134     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

without  words."  Prayer  is  often  voiceless,  but 
it  is  never  unconscious.  When  we  pray  in- 
wardly and  silently  we  pray  consciously. 

The  soul  that  feels  the  touch  of  God's  pres- 
ence and  seeks  to  respond  to  it  will  not  always 
keep  silent  before  Him.  His  prayer  which  be- 
gins as  an  attitude  will  end  as  an  act.  Sooner 
or  later  it  will  take  the  form  of  distinct  peti- 
tion expressed  in  speech.  And  nothing  short 
of  this  is  full  grown  prayer. 

2.  A  personal  act  The  study  of  psychology 
has  emphasized  the  idea  of  personality.  It  has 
made  man  an  object  of  new  interest  to  himself. 
It  has  not  allowed  him  to  forget,  even  in  his 
loftiest  flights,  that  he  is  himself  ;  not  a  frag- 
ment of  the  divine,  but  a  divine  fragment ;  not 
a  part  of  the  Infinite,  but  in  kinship  with  the 
Infinite.  He  is  not  lost  in  God  as  the  river 
may  be  lost  in  the  desert  sands,  but  has  a  per- 
sonality as  real  as  that  of  God  Himself;  so 
that  in  every  act  of  commerce,  bet  ween  him- 
self and  God  the  relation  of  one  personality  to 
another  is  assumed,  and  all  their  dealings  to- 
gether are  the  dealings  of  one  self-conscious 
being  with  another. 

There  is  nothing  perhaps  in  which  the  play 
of  personality  is  more  in  evidence  than  in 
prayer.  Prayer  is  something  in  which  God 
and  the  individual  soul  are  alone  concerned. 
It  is  emphatically  a  personal  act.     A  man  may 


The  Psychology  of  Prayer  135 

be  prayed  for  by  others,  but  that  does  not  ex- 
empt him  from  the  necessity  and  duty  of  pray- 
ing for  himself.  There  are  many  things  he 
can  do  by  proxy,  but  praying  is  not  one  of 
them.  Even  when  he  unites  with  others  in 
prayer  his  personal  petition  must  be  a  separate 
note  in  a  general  symphony,  a  separate  stream 
flowing  into  and  through  the  mighty  river  of 
united  petition.  No  prayer  voiced  by  another 
is  his  until  he  prays  it  over  again  and  makes  it 
his  own. 

3.  An  individualistiG  act  The  psycholo- 
gist looks  upon  every  man  as  a  distinct  crea- 
tion, standing  apart  from  all  other  men,  and 
possessing  certain  differentiating  qualities  which 
mark  him  off  from  them.  He  has  all  the  quali- 
ties of  the  species,  with  certain  more  or  less 
pronounced  variations.  There  is  no  other  per- 
son exactly  like  him.  If  therefore  he  is  true 
to  himself  and  lives  his  own  life  in  his  own 
way,  he  will  do  his  own  praying  in  his  own 
way.  His  praying  will  not  only  be  natural, 
but  it  will  be  original  in  that  it  will  be  his  own 
production.  It  will  not  be  the  echo  of  some 
other  voice  but  will  be  the  expression  of  his 
own  experience,  however  feebly  and  stammer- 
ingly  it  may  be  given. 

Here  we  touch  the  main  objection  to  stated 
forms  of  prayer,  which  is  that  they  are  the 
prayers  of  other  men.     We  may  make  them 


1 36     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

our  own,  and  find  much  help  in  their  use,  but 
we  shall  lose  much  if  we  do  not  supplement 
them  with  prayers  of  our  own  minting — prayers 
that  are  our  very  own. 

When  a  praying  man  is  himself;  when  he 
prays  naturally  and  freely,  and  is  not  afraid  to 
let  himself  out ;  when  he  goes  forth  on  a  great 
adventure  into  the  realm  of  spirit,  taking  an 
unbeaten  path,  and  blazing  his  own  way 
through  the  forest,  he  is  praying  at  his  best. 
God  does  not  want  any  one  to  tell  Him  what 
other  people  have  thought  and  felt ;  He  wants 
him  to  tell  Him  what  he  thinks  and  feels.  In 
prayer  as  in  everything  else  man  should  stand 
upon  his  own  feet,  and  be  himself. 

4.  A  spontouneous  act  Looked  at  under 
this  aspect  prayer  is  an  emotional  impulse 
wrought  out  in  the  secret  places  of  the  subcon- 
scious mind,  coming  from  these  hidden  depths 
like  a  spring  bursting  from  the  ground,  and 
often  breaking  forth  at  unexpected  timiss  and 
places.  Held  for  a  time  in  solution,  in  the 
form  of  a  vague  desire,  which  hardly  knows 
what  it  wants,  when  it  comes  to  itself  and 
knows  what  it  wants  it  is  precipitated  into 
definite  and  concrete  petition.  Out  of  desire 
prayer  is  born.  "  Prayer,"  says  the  Westmin- 
ster Shorter  Catechism,  "  is  the  offering  up  of 
our  desires  to  God" — and  a  better  definition 
could  not  well  be  given.    Desires  are  prayers. 


The  Psychology  of  Prayer  137 

The  Lord  is  said  to  "  fulfill  the  desire  of  them 
that  fear  Him  " ;  and  we  read,  "  Delight  thy- 
self in  the  Lord,  and  He  will  grant  thee  the 
desire  of  thine  heart ;  "  that  is  to  say,  He  will 
give  it  before  prayer  is  full  grown,  and  when 
the  desire  itself  is  as  yet  unuttered. 

Desire  is  a  magnet  by  which  the  soul  draws 
all  things  to  itself.  "  The  thing  we  long  for 
that  we  are."     As  Katherine  Lee  Bates  puts  it, 

"  Know  that  men's  prayers  shall  be  answered, 

And  guard  thy  spirit's  desire, 
That  which  thou  wouldst  be,  thou  must  be, 

That  which  thou  shalt  be,  thou  an. 
As  the  oak  astir  in  the  acorn 

The  dull  earth  rendeth  apart, 
See  thou,  the  soul  of  thy  longing 

That  breaketh  and  waketh  the  heart.'' 

It  is  the  heart  that  prays.  Out  of  the  heart 
are  the  streams  of  devotion.  When  the  mind 
muses  the  heart  burns,  and  when  the  heart 
burns  the  tongue  speaks.  We  brood  over  our 
condition  and  needs,  and  before  we  know  it  we 
are  praying ;  we  brood  over  the  wants  and  woes 
of  others,  we  think  of  their  baffled  hopes,  their 
bitter  failures,  their  blindness  to  life's  eternal 
issues,  and  our  hearts  are  stirred  with  sym- 
pathy, and  our  prayers  flow  forth.  Prayer 
then  comes  without  restraint.  To  use  Beech- 
er's  figure,  "  we  do  not  push  it  through  like 


138     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

driving  a  wedge  into  a  log  ; "  it  comes  of  itself, 
free  and  unconstrained,  and  is  as  natural  as 
breathing. 

Behind  all  effective  praying  there  is  intensity 
of  feeling.  Lukewarm  prayers  lack  projectile 
force  ;  fervent,  importunate  prayer  rises  or  falls 
to  the  level  of  the  fountain  of  desire.  By  the 
intensity  of  desire  the  power  of  prayer  is  to  be 
measured.  Those  who  desire  little  get  little; 
those  who  desire  much  get  much.  The  more 
importunate  the  cry  of  any  human  soul,  the 
more  does  it  move  the  heart  of  God,  and  the 
more  intense  his  desire  to  obtain  some  special 
blessing  the  better  prepared  will  he  be  to  re- 
ceive it,  and  to  be  benefited  by  it. 

5.  A  rational  act.  It  is  not  a  thing  of 
hlind  desire — a  mere  impulse  of  the  affections, 
but  is  an  exercise  of  the  intellect,  a  dictate  of 
reason.  When  men  pray  truly  they  follow  the 
lead  of  reason  as  well  as  of  the  heart. 

In  the  midst  of  a  wild  storm  of  fanaticism, 
when  the  people  around  him  prayed  in  an  un- 
known tongue,  Paul  stood  unperturbed,  refusing 
to  surrender  his  intellectual  integrity,  or  to  ab- 
rogate his  reason,  affirming,  "  I  will  pray  with 
the  understanding  also  "  (1  Cor.  xiv.  15).  In 
taking  this  position  he  was  acting  in  harmony 
with  sound  psychological  principles ;  for  if 
reason  be  man's  chief  prerogative  nowhere  is 
its  exercise  more  imperatively  demanded  than 


The  Psychology  of  Prayer  1 39 

in  that  act  in  which  it  is  put  to  its  highest 
use. 

6.  It  is  a  volitional  act.  Man  prays  because 
he  wants  to  pray,  not  because  he  is  forced  to 
pray.  Every  impulse  to  pray  he  can  ruthlessly 
crush.  He  can  put  the  hand  of  restraint  upon 
the  mouth  of  his  soul  and  keep  it  from  speaking 
out,  or  contrariwise  he  can  give  it  voice ;  he  can 
chain  it  to  earth,  or  allow  it  to  soar  to  heaven ; 
he  can  keep  it  moving  among  the  things  of 
sense,  or  send  it  out  into  the  invisible.  When 
desire  swells  his  sails  he  can  keep  his  hands 
upon  the  rudder  of  his  will,  and  direct  his 
prayer  to  definite  ends ;  and  when  the  desire 
to  pray  is  absent,  and  the  need  to  pray  is  on 
that  account  all  the  greater,  he  can  hold  him- 
self to  the  exercise  of  prayer  as  a  duty. 

The  will  is  the  center  of  personality.  It  is  a 
positive  force  sending  out  streams  of  vital  en- 
ergy ;  it  is  a  creative  force  initiating  changes, 
and  beginning  new  things.  So  that  a  man,  if 
he  wills  it,  may  at  any  time  turn  his  soul  to 
God,  and  begin  to  pray.  "'  The  will  to  power  " 
he  may  not  always  possess ;  but  the  power  to 
will  is  something  of  which  he  can  never  be 
robbed ;  and  so  long  as  he  has  that  power 
prayer  is  something  he  can  render,  and  hence 
it  is  something  for  which  he  is  responsible. 

7.  An  act  of  the  whole  man.  It  calls  into 
play  every  part  of  the  spiritual  nature,  bring- 


140     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

ing  them  all  into  harmonious  combination  and 
into  united  action.  This  demands  strenuous 
effort.  In  the  New  Testament  souls  are  repre- 
sented as  "  striving  in  prayer,"  as  the  trained 
athlete  strives  for  mastery  in  the  games.  It  is 
anything  but  easy  to  pray  well,  and  especially 
to  pray  well  and  long.  There  is  no  spiritual 
exercise  that  calls  for  greater  soul-strain.  The 
keeping  up  of  regular  habits  of  prayer  is  beset 
by  the  difficulties  which  belong  to  sustained 
mental  effort  of  any  kind ;  it  is  also  beset  by 
moral  difficulties ;  for  when  heaven  is  pulling 
the  soul  up,  earth  is  pulling  it  down ;  and  man 
requires  to  stir  himself  up  to  lay  hold  on  God 
and  keep  energizing  God  ward.  To  be  success- 
ful in  prayer  he  must  pay  the  price  of  putting 
into  it  all  his  heart,  and  mind,  and  soul. 

This  much,  at  least,  finds  verification  in  the 
study  of  the  psychology  of  prayer.  But  psy- 
chology has  its  limits,  and  all  its  attempts  to 
dissolve  personality  into  its  constituent  ele- 
ments and  compel  it  to  give  up  its  secrets  is 
vain.  There  is  much  that  baffles  the  observer, 
eluding  his  analysis,  and  upsetting  all  his 
previous  conclusions.  Nor  has  it  anything 
to  say  touching  the  divine  side  of  things. 
As  the  science  of  the  soul  it  is  concerned 
merely  with  the  soul's  workings  ;  but  the  mys- 
terious action  of  God  upon  the  soul  lies  be- 
yond its  ken.    Where  psychology   leaves  us 


The  Psychology  of  Prayer  141 

theology  takes  us  up.  As  the  science  of  God 
it  makes  Him  known,  that  men  may  come  into 
right  relation  to  Him,  and  know  Him  as  the 
one  who  hears  us  when  we  pray,  and  who  re- 
ciprocates every  movement  of  mind  and  heart 
towards  Him.  This  side  of  things  is  known 
only  to  him  who  prays.  Although  he  may  not 
be  able  to  demonstrate  it  to  others  he  know^s 
within  himself  that  things  are  done  for  him  in 
answer  to  prayer  that  nothing  save  the  opera- 
tion of  the  power  of  God  can  explain.  U  he 
that  belie veth  hath  the  witness  in  himself, 
equally  true  is  it  that  he  that  prayeth  hath  the 
witness  in  himself. 


XIX 

Practical  Prayer — or  Prayer  as  it  Ap- 
peals to  the  Modern  Man 

THE  question,  "What  profit  shall  we 
have  if  we  pray  unto  Him  ? "  is  one 
which  Job  puts  into  the  mouth  of 
worldly  men;  men  who  are  destitute  of  the 
knowledge  of  God  and  His  ways.  Those  who 
know  God  and  pray  to  Him  never  ask  such  a 
question.  Indeed  the  more  a  man  prays  the 
less  questioning  has  he  touching  the  efficacy  of 
prayer. 

It  is  because  of  the  deep-rooted  conviction 
that  prayer  is  of  use,  that  it  makes  things  differ- 
ent, that  more  things  are  wrought  by  it  than 
this  world  dreams  of  that  men  continue  to  pray. 
When  confidence  is  lost  in  the  practical  value 
of  prayer,  when  men  cease  to  believe  in  it  as 
profitable,  the  practice  of  it  soon  drops  out  of 
their  lives. 

The  first  question  therefore  is.  What  is  prac- 
tical prayer?  In  other  words,  What  are  the 
elements  which  entering  into  prayer  make  it 
practical  ? 

142 


Practical  Prayer  143 

1.  Practical  prayer  is  prayer  that  makes 
connection  with  God.  A  great  deal  of  prayer 
never  reaches  God.  It  lacks  propulsive  force, 
and  stops  on  the  way.  It  may  be  formally  ad- 
dressed to  Him,  but  it  fails  to  reach  its  destina- 
tion. Often  it  is  directed  to  human  ears ;  or  it 
is  sent  out  to  wander  in  the  viewless  air  until  it 
is  hopelessly  lost. 

The  story  is  told  that  when  certain  work- 
men were  repairing  the  ceiling  of  a  church,  one 
of  them  found  a  neatly  tied  bundle  among  the 
rafters.  "  What  have  you  there  ? "  he  was 
asked.  "  I  suspect  it  is  a  bundle  of  the 
dominie's  prayers  that  never  got  above  the 
roof,"  was  his  reply.  If  prayers  could  be 
materialized  it  is  to  be  feared  that  a  pretty 
large  collection  might  often  be  found  lodged  in 
the  same  place. 

According  to  Auguste  Sabatier  prayer  is 
"  the  movement  of  the  soul  putting  itself  into 
personal  relation  and  contact  with  the  mysteri- 
ous power  whose  presence  it  feels  even  before 
it  is  able  to  give  it  a  name.''  Strictly  speaking 
that  is  rather  a  preliminary  of  prayer.  Prayer 
is  the  communion  that  follows.  Hence  the  first 
thing  required  in  order  to  make  prayer  practi- 
cal is  to  find  God  before  we  begin  to  pray  ;  to 
prepare  our  hearts  to  seek  Him,  and  not  to  rest 
satisfied  until  we  connect  up  with  Him,  and 
establish  ourselves  in  His  presence,  thus  avoid- 


144     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

ing  the  folly  of  attempting  to  send  our  mes- 
sage when  the  transmitter  is  down. 

2.  Practical  prayer  is  prayer  that  answers 
its  intended  ends ;  answers,  that  is,  the  ends 
that  prayer  was  meant  to  serve.  Now,  what 
are  the  true  and  legitimate  ends  of  prayer? 
We  answer  :  Its  ends  are  twofold. 

{a)  It  was  designed  to  he  a  means  for  getting 
things  from  God.  This  is  the  common  view  re- 
garding it,  and  it  is  correct  as  far  as  it  goes. 
We  get  many  things  from  God,  just  as  we  get 
them  from  one  another,  by  asking  for  them. 
**  Ask  and  ye  shall  receive,  seek  and  ye  shall 
find,  knock  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you." 
The  things  secured  by  prayer  embrace  the 
whole  circle  of  human  interests  and  needs  ;  nor 
is  anything  that  concerns  man  a  matter  of  in- 
difference to  God,  or  too  insignificant  to  take  to 
Him  in  prayer. 

That  prayer  often  obtains  for  us  substantial 
material  benefits  goes  without  the  saying. 
Many  are  ready  to  testify  that  they  have  gone 
to  God  in  financial  straits,  in  sickness,  and  in 
trouble,  and  He  has  brought  them  relief.  In- 
deed, most  of  the  recorded  answers  to  prayer 
spoken  of  as  "  remarkable  "  are  of  this  kind ; 
and  usually  when  men  speak  of  profit  in  prayer 
they  are  thinking  of  some  temporary  advantage 
derived  from  it.  Others,  swinging  to  the  op- 
posite extreme,  deny  to  prayer  any  value  what- 


Practical  Prayer  145 

ever  along  this  line.  Among  this  class  was  the 
poet  Whittier,  who  though  wrong  in  his  main 
contention  was  right  in  saying  that  "  when  men 
put  faith  on  that  material  ground  there  is  no 
wonder  that  Tyndall  should  propose  a  prayer 
test.  He  is  challenged  to  it  by  such  views.  If 
a  man  seeking  after  truth  puts  faith  on  the 
material  plane,  it  is  fair  that  he  should  propose 
to  test  it  in  that  way."  That  test,  when  made, 
has  proved  to  many  a  rock  on  which  they  have 
made  shipwreck  of  their  faith. 

A  boy  was  told  that  God  would  give  him  what- 
ever he  asked.  He  happened  to  want  a  steam 
engine,  so  he  prayed  for  that ;  but  it  did  not 
come.  He  prayed  the  second  time  with  the 
same  result.  The  third  evening  he  said,  "  O 
Lord,  I  have  asked  you  twice  already  for  that 
steam  engine ;  now  it  is  three  times  and  out ; 
and  if  it  does  not  come  by  to-morrow  morning, 
I  will  worship  idols."  That  boy  was  logical ; 
but  his  premise  was  wrong.  What  is  over- 
looked in  such  a  case  is  that  the  promise  "  all 
things  whatsoever "  has  certain  provisos  at- 
tached to  it,  the  chief  one  being  that  it  is  re- 
stricted to  all  things  in  harmony  with  God's 
will.  God  has  not  promised  to  give  us  all  the 
things  we  want^  but  all  the  things  we  need. 
Prayer  is  not  the  means  of  getting  from  God 
the  things  we  happen  to  clamour  for,  but  the 
things  He  deems  it  best  for  us  to  have.     As  the 


146     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

lines  of  the  original  of  Montgomery's  hymn  or 
prayer — but  omitted  from  recent  versions — ex- 
presses it : 

''  Prayer  is  appointed  to  convey 
The  things  that  God  designs  to  give." 

But  whatever  doubt  may  exist  regarding  the 
material  advantages  of  prayer  there  can  be  none 
regarding  its  spiritual  advantages.  It  is  un- 
doubtedly the  chief  means  of  nourishing  the 
spiritual  life.  By  it  we  are  brought  to  the 
fountain  of  life,  where  our  souls  renew  their 
youth  and  regain  their  freshness  and  vigour. 
By  it  we  receive  the  undergirding  of  divine 
power  for  the  struggle  of  life.  So  necessary  is 
it  as  a  means  of  grace  that  no  growth  in  holi- 
ness can  be  attained  without  it.  Those  who  al- 
low the  grass  to  grow  over  the  path  that  leads 
to  the  place  of  secret  prayer  decline  in  spiritual 
interest  and  power.  Prayer  is  the  soul's  battle 
ground  where  victories  are  won,  or  where  we  go 
down  in  defeat.  If  we  fail  there  we  fail  every- 
where. 

(h)  Prayer  has  a  higher  end  to  serve  than 
being  the  means  of  getting  things  from  God  ; 
it  is  also  the  weans  of  doi?ig  things  for  God, 
It  has  a  place  all  its  own  in  the  Christian 
system,  as  a  distinct  form  of  social  service. 
When  a  man  prays  he  is  doing  something  be- 
sides going  through  a  pious   exercise.     He  is 


Practical  Prayer  147 

engaged  in  real  work.  He  is  setting  in  opera- 
tion forces  that  affect  the  well-being  of  hu- 
manity, and  that  working  in  harmony  with  the 
ordained  methods  of  social  influence  connect 
him  with  everything  in  the  world  that  makes 
for  human  weal.  And  not  only  so,  but  he  in 
his  prayer  supplies  a  new  condition  for  the 
working  out  of  the  divine  purpose,  so  that  it 
is  not  merely  something  that  God  can  use,  but 
something  that  He  cannot  do  without.  The 
praying  soul  thus  not  only  does  things  for 
Him,  he  does  things  with  Him.  He  is  His 
"  fellow-labourer."  A  thoughtful  little  girl  once 
said  to  her  mother,  "  I  have  been  helping  God 
to-day."  "  What  have  you  been  doing,  my 
child  ?  "  she  asked.  "  I  found  a  flower  half 
blowed,  and  I  blowed  it."  Something  like 
this  is  what  we  do  by  our  prayers.  We  help 
God  to  develop  undeveloped  lives.  We  pray 
them  into  goodness.  We  create  around  them 
a  new  atmosphere ;  we  breathe  upon  their  half- 
opened  hearts,  and  cause  them  to  expand  in  the 
beauty  of  holiness. 

Of  all  the  forms  which  cooperation  with  God 
can  take  there  is  none  more  potential  than  this, 
and  none  more  beautiful.  It  is  the  highest  form 
of  divine  service  that  life  can  offer.  Fortu- 
nately, it  is  open  to  all,  so  that  any  one  who  is 
shut  out  from  life's  outward  activities  can  re- 
joicingly say  : 


148     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

^^  And  so  we  work  together, 
My  Lord  and  I.'^ 

And  the  share  in  the  final  result,  of  the  hum- 
blest, weakest  saint  who  prays  in  faith,  the 
Lord  Himself  will  be  the  first  to  acknowledge. 

3.  Practical  prayer  is  prayer  that  turns  the 
power  which  it  evokes  to  'practical  account.  It 
goes  into  the  invisible  realm,  and  brings  its 
riches  into  the  earthly  realm.  It  brings  down 
power  from  the  upper  sphere  to  operate  in  the 
lower  sphere,  belting  it  to  something,  so  that  it 
moves  something,  and  produces  something. 

A  great  deal  of  this  power  is  often  allowed 
to  run  to  waste.  It  simply  makes  the  wheels 
go  round,  without  grinding  any  grist ;  or  it  has 
an  output  ridiculously  small.  The  utilization 
of  this  waste  power  is  one  of  the  things  ur- 
gently demanded.  Power  so  great,  so  wonder- 
ful, as  that  which  prayer  evokes,  ought  to 
produce  results  at  which  the  world  will 
wonder. 

What  St.  Paul  says  of  faith  may  be  said  of 
prayer — "  without  works  it  is  dead,  being  alone." 
When  alive  it  is  not  alone,  but  has  good  works 
in  abundance  clustering  around  it.  It  not  only 
vitalizes  and  makes  effective  existing  agencies, 
it  inaugurates  new  movements. 

What  the  praying  soul  asks  for  he  will  be 
ready  to  work  for.  Sometimes  he  will  convert 
his  prayers  into  ballots,  sometimes  into  bullets ; 


Practical  Prayer  149 

at  all  times  he  will  convert  them  into  those 
things  which  will  lead  up  to  prayer's  answer. 
His  tender  beseeching  on  behalf  of  sinners  will 
lead  him  to  plead  with  them  to  be  reconciled 
to  God  ;  his  prayers  for  the  poor  will  lead  him 
to  minister  to  their  relief  ;  his  prayer  for  the 
afflicted  will  lead  him  to  carry  to  them  the  cup 
of  consolation  and  press  it  to  their  lips.  He 
will  not  pitch  his  tent  permanently  on  the 
mount  of  transfiguration,  but  will  leave  its 
celestial  glories  and  delights  for  the  work  that 
awaits  him  in  the  valley  below  ;  he  will  not 
tarry  too  long  in  the  upper  room,  but  will  go 
forth  from  it  clothed  with  the  Spirit^s  power 
to  be  Christ's  messenger  of  grace  to  a  needy 
and  dying  world. 

4.  Practical  prayer  has  regard  to  the  rela- 
tion of  means  to  ends.  It  expects  God's  bless- 
ing only  when  the  necessary  conditions  have 
been  supplied. 

When  wo  pray  for  bread  God  puts  work  into 
our  hands,  and  the  bread  comes  ;  when  we  pray 
for  bodily  healing  He  directs  us  to  the  use  of 
suitable  remedies,  and  the  sickness  is  gone  i^ 
when  we  pray  for  the  removal  of  pestilence 
God  leads  us  to  adopt  proper  sanitary  measures, 
and  the  pestilence  stalks  away  discomfited. 
The  times  when  He  sends  the  loaf  direct,  or 
heals  by  miracle,  or  stays  the  plague  by  his 
omnific   fiat  are  few  and  special.     He  often 


150     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

helps  by  direct  action  those  who  cannot  help 
themselves,  but  He  never  helps  those  who  can 
help  themselves  except  by  securing  their  active 
cooperation. 

It  is  one  of  the  commonplaces  of  religious 
thought  that  in  the  work  of  the  world's  re- 
demption prayer  is  always  to  be  connected 
with  the  right  use  of  means.  Before  God  can 
answer  our  prayer  He  has  often  to  wait  until 
we  do  our  part. 

"  No  answer  comes  to  those  who  pray, 

Then  idly  stand, 
And  wait  for  stones  to  roll  away 

At  God's  command. 
He  will  not  break  the  binding  cords 

Upon  us  laid 
If  we  depend  on  pleading  words, 

And  will  not  aid. 
When  hands  are  idle,  words  are  vain 

To  move  the  stone  ; 
An  aidiug  angel  would  disdain 

To  work  alone  ; 
But  he  who  prayeth  and  is  strong 

In  faith  and  deed. 
And  toileth  earnestly,  ere  long 

He  will  succeed.'' 

A  striking  illustration  of  the  relation  of  means 
to  ends  is  given  in  the  prophet  Ezekiel's  vision 
of  the  valley  of  dry  bones.  The  prophet  was 
asked  to  inspect  the  bleached  bones  of  a  mighty 


Practical  Prayer  151 

host  which  had  been  slain  in  battle,  and  found 
them  to  be  *'  very  many,  and  very  dry."  When 
asked,  "  Son  of  man,  can  these  bones  live  ?  "  it 
seemed  to  him  scarcely  possible  that  such  a  des- 
perate condition  of  things  could  be  remedied, 
and  that  a  people  whose  power  had  been  so 
completely  shattered,  and  whose  spirit  had 
been  crushed  by  slavery,  could  be  restored  to 
their  former  glory  ;  so  he  wisely  answered,  "  O 
Lord,  Thou  knowest."  While  he  did  not  see 
how  it  could  be  done  he  put  no  limit  to  the 
power  of  God.  He  was  then  told  to  prophesy 
to  the  people,  saying,  "O  ye  dry  bones,  hear 
the  word  of  the  Lord."  He  was  also  to 
prophesy  to  the  wind,  and  say,  "Come  from 
the  four  winds,  O  breath,  and  breathe  upon 
the  slain  that  they  may  live."  The  two  agen- 
cies which  he  was  to  employ  for  the  revivitica- 
tion  of  the  nation's  life  were  preaching  and 
prayer — the  one  a  man  ward  force,  the  other  a 
God  ward  force.  These  are  the  agencies  which 
God  has  always  employed  for  the  moral  resto- 
ration of  the  world.  In  the  divine  plan  they 
are  always  united ;  and  what  God  hath  joined 
together  let  no  man  put  asunder.  Where  there 
is  no  motion  of  spiritual  life,  no  response  to 
God's  appeal,  we  must  not  cease  to  preach ;  for 
in  this  sphere  of  things  the  dead  can  hear ;  nor 
must  we  cease  to  invoke  the  outbreathing  of 
the   Holy   Spirit,  for  no  other  and  no  lesser 


152     Prayer  in  Its  Present  Day  Aspects 

power  caa  infuse  life  into  dead  souls,  and  trans- 
form dry  and  scattered  bones  into  a  united, 
conquering  host. 

The  thing  which  the  prophet  was  to  declare 
was  "  the  word  of  the  Lord."  He  was  to  pro- 
claim a  divine  message,  which  was  to  be  the 
connecting  medium  between  dead  souls  and 
God's  quickening  power.  Here  it  is  that  we 
often  fail.  We  do  not  supply  the  proper 
medium  through  which  God  can  work.  Ser- 
mons on  science,  poetry,  or  history  are  non- 
conductors. Punk  is  a  poor  substitute  for 
dynamite. 

The  facts  of  the  Gospel  are  the  media 
through  which  the  saving  power  of  God 
reaches  the  heart  of  man.  The  Gospel  is  the 
power  of  God  unto  salvation  because  of  the 
saving  truth  that  is  lodged  in  it.  To  pray  for 
the  salvation  of  men  without  using  the  divinely 
appointed  means  to  save  them  is  utterly  vain. 

5.  Practical  prayer  is  prayer  that  sees  the 
thing  through  which  it  has  hegun.  It  does  not 
knock  and  retire,  but  keeps  knocking  until  the 
door  is  opened.  It  watches  for  the  answer  ;  it 
waits  for  the  answer  ;  it  works  for  the  answer. 
It  does  not  indulge  in  vague  and  ineffectual 
longings,  as  in  the  case  of  a  young  girl  who 
said  to  a  prima  donna,  "  I  would  give  all  the 
world  if  I  could  sing  like  that."  "  Would  you 
give  four  hours  a  day  ?  "  was  the  reply. 


Practical  Prayer  15*3 

The  race  is  often  given  up  when  the  goal  is 
near — one  spurt  more  and  the  prize  would  be 
won.     How  many  of  us  recall  a  time  when  — 

**  Just  a  few  steps  more 
And  there  might  have  dawned  for  me 
Blue  and  infinite  the  sea. " 

But  alas !  the  few  steps  more  were  not  taken, 
and  we  went  back  heavy-footed  and  heavy- 
hearted  without  seeing  the  gladdening  vision. 
Why  does  God  delay  ?  Why  does  He  keep  us 
praying  and  waiting  ?  Not  surely  because  He 
is  unwilling  or  unready  to  give,  but  solely  be- 
cause we  are  unready  to  receive.  He  can  have 
no  interest  whatever  in  withholding  from  us 
any  spiritual  blessing  for  a  single  moment. 
The  disciples  were  kept  praying  ten  days  in 
the  upper  room.  Why  ?  Because  they  were 
not  ready  on  the  ninth.  Our  Pentecost  will 
come  just  as  soon  as  our  preparation  is  com- 
plete. « 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  Amerie* 


DEVOTIONAL 


JOHN   HENRY  JOfVETT 

My  Daily  Meditation  for  the  circling  Year 

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set  so  many  guessing.  Mr,  Gordon,  however,  holds  the  deep 
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wholly  with  our  practical  daily  lives. 

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QUESTIONS  OF  THE  DAY 


FREDERICK  W.   PEABODY 

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REV.   JOSEPH   T.  GIBSON,   P.P. 

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BISHOP  IFALTER   R.    LAMBUTH 

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SERMONS— LECTURES- ADDRESSES 

r,  ^"  ,  I    ■         r     ,         H'  I  i^ 

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ESSAYS  AND  STUDIES 


JOSEPH  FOR T  NEWTON  ^-^^^o^st ^ '^^'.  ^i^V^<^l 

•  Chrtst,      Davtd  Sivtne 

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In  The  Sun  is  a  refreshing  and  enheartening  book;  the 
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PHILIP   MAURO 

Looking  for  the  Saviour 

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PROF.  LEE  R.  SCARBOROUGH 

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-"Here  is  a  soul-stirring  message,  presenting  the  call  and  the 
need  and  the  response  we  should  make.  The  author  is  deeply 
spiritual,  wise,  earnest  and  conservative  in  presenting  his-ap* 
peal. — Ward  and  Way. 

PRINCIPAL  ALEXANPER   fFHYTE,  P.  P. 

Thirteen  Appreciations 

i2mo,  cloth,  net  $1.50. 

Appreciations  of  Santa  Teresa,  Jacol)  Boehme,  Bishop  An- 
drews, Samuel  Rutherford,  Thomas  Shepard,  Thomas  Good- 
win, Sir  Thomas  Browne,  William  Law,  James  Fraser  of 
Brea,  Bishop  Butler,  Cardinal  Newman,  William  Guthrie  and 
John  Wesley,  go  to  the  making  of  Dr.  Whyte's  new  book,  a 
work  of  high  authority,  revealing  on  every  page  the  man  wk» 
wrote  it. 


Date  Due 

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